


A Million Precious Questions

by dontsaycrazy



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bokuto is Tetsurou's dad, DaiSuga TsukkiYama KiyoYachi and baby KageHina are also here because I'm shipping trash, Expect lots of dorky dads and adorable children, Family, Featuring lots of kindergarten adventures and dumb grown-up crushes, Fluff, M/M, Parenthood, Romance, Seriously schedule a dentist appointment, Slow Burn, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, and Akaashi is Kenma's
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-24
Updated: 2017-06-25
Packaged: 2018-05-16 00:48:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 42,638
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5806822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dontsaycrazy/pseuds/dontsaycrazy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bokuto and Akaashi know for a fact that, despite its many rewards, parenthood doesn't leave space, or time, for a lot of things: hair-styiling, lazy mornings, swearing out loud, stainless furniture...</p><p>It does, however, leave plenty of room for falling in love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

     Despite the cold wind blowing non-stop outside, and the loud banging of tree branches hitting the window, Bokuto barely even moves, still trapped in the deepest of slumbers. But the sound of tiny footsteps coming from the hallway manages to awake him, if only enough for him to crack open one eye, and instantly fall asleep again. His bed is warm, and the sheets are soft against his skin, things that he barely acknowledges as he furrows deeper into the blankets, and buries his face against the pillow to keep sleeping.

     But he can still hear the footsteps approaching his bedroom, and he almost prays for it to be a dream, for his son to be asleep in his own bed, instead of slowly opening the door to Bokuto’s bedroom.

     “Papa,” Tetsurou’s tiny voice reaches him from the doorway behind his back, crashing every hope Bokuto may have harbored of getting a couple more minutes to sleep. He figures that ignoring him and pretending to be asleep will be enough for the kid to close the door and return to his own bed, but Tetsurou proves him wrong by quietly approaching his bed. “Papa,” he calls out again, a little louder this time, and Bokuto responds with a tiny grunt, still barely awake. “You need to wake up, we’re gonna be late.”

     “Five more minutes, Tetsu…” Bokuto rasps out, clutching to his blankets like a lifeline.

     With his back turned to his son, Bokuto can’t see the pout that instantly takes over Tetsurou’s face. He can, however, feel his son’s tiny hand fall harshly on his face with a loud slap, accompanied by an offended “WAKE UP, LAZY PAPA!”

     Bokuto sits up on the bed with a yelp, throwing the blankets away from him and into Tetsurou’s face. He places a hand on his offended cheek, stinging from Tetsurou’s slap.

     “Hey, Tetsu, what the-!” he begins, but then stops when he sees Tetsurou dragging the sheets away from his face, revealing a deep frown, and an outrageous bed-head. He looks so cute in his red pajamas, adorned with dozens of tiny kittens, and his black hair sticking out everywhere, that Bokuto can’t help but to smile fondly at his son, despite the stinging of his cheek. He reaches out to grab Tetsurou under his armpits, and drag him into the bed with him. “You really are excited for your first day of preschool, huh?”

     Tetsurou nods slowly a couple times, and then smiles widely when his dad affectionately ruffles his hair. Bokuto yawns loudly, stretching his arms widely. Tetsurou takes advantage of his position to wrap his arms around Bokuto’s middle in a tight hug, earning himself another ruffle and kiss to the top of his head.

     “Let’s go get some breakfast, buddy!” Bokuto exclaims, getting an excited _“yay”_ in response. He gets up from his bed and pads lazily to the kitchen, with Tetsurou still hugging his chest, his short legs dangling from side to side with every one of his dad’s steps. Bokuto stops to grab a hair band from the bathroom, and ties his hair up in a bun.

     Fatherhood doesn’t really leave time for hair-styling, he thinks.

~•~

     Akaashi finishes fixing the collar of his shirt around his tie, and gives an approving nod to the mirror before heading to Kenma’s bedroom. He opens the door slowly and peeks inside the dark room, inspecting the bundle of sheets that lies on the small bed.

     “Kenma,” Akaashi calls, carefully stepping inside. He walks over to the bed, keeping his footsteps as silent as possible to avoid disturbing his son too much. “It’s time to wake up, swee-”

     Akaashi stops dead in his tracks when he realizes that Kenma isn’t in his bed. The absence of his four-year old is enough to make him panic for a short moment, until he hears the tell-tale sound of a stool being dragged across the kitchen floor downstairs.

     “Kenma?” he calls out, loud enough for his voice to reach the kitchen. “Are you in the kitchen?”

     The sound of the stool being dragged stops, and a moment of silence passes before Kenma’s soft voice floats upstairs to the bedroom.

     “Yes.”

     Akaashi lets a sigh of relief escape his lips, and he brings a hand to his chest, willing his heart to calm down.

     “This kid is gonna kill me someday…” he mumbles to himself.

     The sight of Kenma standing on a stool, stretching his short arms to try and open a cabinet greets Akaashi as soon as he walks into the kitchen. The man lets out a startled sound and rushes to Kenma’s side. He wraps his arms around Kenma’s small body, and carefully sets him on the counter.

     “Kenma, that’s dangerous!” Akaashi chastises, receiving a frown and a tiny pout in return.

     “I wanted cereal.”

     Akaashi’s worried frown softens, and he drops his shoulders with a sigh. He looks at Kenma, who in turn looks at him with big, yellow eyes, slightly hidden behind soft locks of dark hair. Akaashi cracks a smile and boops Kenma’s nose, making him squirm in his blue kitten onesie.

     “Why didn’t you tell me you were already up?” Akaashi asks. He opens the cabinet to retrieve Kenma’s favorite cereal, and heads to the fridge to grab the milk.

     Kenma only shrugs in response, watching intently as his father pours him a bowl of cereal. Akaashi sets the cereal on the table, and then turns to grab Kenma from the counter. Kenma stretches his arms towards him, and wraps them around his neck once he’s in Akaashi’s arms.

     Once Kenma is sat at the table, spoon in hand, Akaashi turns to start the coffeemaker, and place a couple of bread slices in the toaster. He looks back over his shoulder to see Kenma silently chewing his cereal, absently dangling his feet, which hang more than a foot above the ground. Akaashi smiles fondly, resisting the urge to squish his son in his arms, and cover him in kisses. He knows better than to push Kenma into physical contact, but it becomes hard to resist when he looks as cute as he does right now.

     “Are you excited for your first day of preschool?” Akaashi asks, sitting down at the table with his own breakfast in his hands. Kenma shrugs once again, quiet as ever, and Akaashi smiles again.

     “Kenma,” he says, earning his son’s attention. “You’re really cute, you know that?”

     Kenma’s eyebrows knit together, and he looks back down at his cereal.

     “I’m not cute,” he mumbles, embarassed, but the tiny cat ears that adorn the hood of his kitten onesie really contradict him.

     “Whatever you say, kitty-cat,” Akaashi teases, unable to resist from booping his nose one more time.

     “D-don’t call me that!” Kenma stammers, turning a deep shade of pink. He pouts deeply when his dad bursts out laughing, and then returns his attention to his cereal in flustered frustration.

~•~

     “Papa,” Tetsurou says from the back seat of the car, and Bokuto responds with a soft hum, eyes fixed on the road. “Who would win in a fight: a cat, or an owl?”

     Bokuto cracks a smile. They’ve had this discussion over a dozen times, but he decides that humoring his son one more time won’t hurt anyone.

     “The owl, of course!”

     “No way!” Tetsurou protests. “Why!?”

     “Because owls can fly, and they have super sharp claws!”

     “But cats are faster!” Tetsurou refutes. “And cuter.”

     Bokuto gasps, slamming the breaks at an incoming stoplight, and turns to look at his son with a look of feigned indignation.

     “Take that back!” he exclaims, turning around to squint at the kid.

     “No-o-o!” Tetsurou says with a grin, and then sticks out his tongue at him.

     “Oh-ho-ho, is that so?” Bokuto turns back around on his seat to face forward, and waits until the light turns green to meet Tetsurou’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Then I guess I'm gonna have to drive _super_ slow!”

     “Noooooo!” Tetsurou wails, but it’s already too late; Bokuto is moving down the street at the approximate speed of a turtle suffering with rheumatism. People behind them start honking and yelling at him, but Bokuto keeps the same infuriating pace. “Papa, go faster!” Tetsurou pleads impatiently.

     “No-o-o!” Bokuto imitates his son’s previous answer, with a wide grin still splitting his face. “Go find a cat and ride it to school, since they’re so fast and cute!”

     “You _know_ cats are cuter than owls!” Tetsurou replies, leaning forward against his seatbelt and grabbing the back of Bokuto’s headrest to place his face right next to his dad’s.

     “And apparently, they can’t sit properly in a car!” Bokuto reaches out and pokes Tetsurou’s ribs, and the kid falls back with a squeal.

     “Alright, alright!” Tetsurou exclaims, throwing his arms up in defeat. “Owls _are_ cute too!”

     “Damn right they are!” Bokuto throws a winning smile in his son’s direction, before finally accelerating to a proper speed.

     “Yeeeeeah!” Tetsurou cries out, raising his arms over his head in a victorious gesture. They spend the rest of the ride whooping and laughing loudly, until a narrowly avoided encounter with a police car forces them to behave, and sit properly on their own seats.

~•~

     Bokuto gets out of the car first to open the door for his son. Tetsurou jumps out the car, bento box in hand, and cat-adorned backpack hanging from one shoulder. He closes the door behind him, and then turns to stare at the wide-open doors of the pastel colored building before them.

     “Are you ready, buddy?” Bokuto asks, ruffling his son’s already messy hair. Tetsurou nods excitedly, eyes still fixed on the preschool building.

     “Bokuto!” a familiar voice calls behind them, and both of them turn around at the same time.

     “Ah, Suga, Daichi!” Bokuto greets the incoming couple with a wide smile, waving them over.

     Suga practically skips down the street to meet him. His husband follows right behind him, holding their son’s tiny hand in his own. The dark-haired kid is holding a volley ball in his free hand, and his dark blue eyes scan the place with mild interest.

     “Long time no see!” Daichi says when they reach Bokuto and Tetsurou. Suga bends over to talk to Tetsurou, with his ever present smile shining in place.

     “Good morning, Tetsu-kun!”

     “Good morning, Suga-san,” Tetsurou greets back politely, smiling back at him.

     “Is this your kid?” Bokuto asks, and he is the one to bend down this time to smile at Daichi and Suga’s son.

     “This is Tobio,” Suga says, caressing his son’s smooth hair. “Tobio, this is Bokuto-san, and his son, Tetsurou-kun.”

     “Nice to meet you,” Tobio acknowledges them shyly with a tiny nod of his head, squeezing Daichi’s hand with his tiny fingers.

     “This is one cute brat you got here,” Bokuto says, straightening his back. “He kinda looks like you, Daichi.”

     “No way. He’s pretty like Suga,” Daichi says, throwing a loving glance in his husband’s direction, and getting a shy smile, and a soft slap on his shoulder in return.

     “Ugh, you guys are disgusting!” Bokuto complains, eliciting laughter from both Daichi and Suga.

     “Do you like volleyball?” Tetsurou asks Tobio, pointing at the ball he’s holding. Tobio’s eyes immediately light up, and he opens his mouth to answer, but he’s promptly interrupted by a loud, high-pitched voice echoing behind them.

     “Tobiooooooo!”

     All of them turn around, just in time to watch as an excited blur of orange hair collides with Tobio. The dark-haired boy struggles to retain his balance, and receive the violent hug without dropping his ball.

     “I missed you!”

     “Sh-shouyou, you dumbass!” Tobio stammers, cheeks turning a deep shade of pink. He lightly pushes the other boy away, and glares down at him with obvious embarrassment. “We saw each other like two days ago!”

     “Still, I really wanted to play with you!” Shouyou explains with a small pout, and then hugs Tobio again.

     “Shouyou!” A familiar figure approaches them, running behind the red-haired boy. “Don’t run away like that!” Another, taller person trails behind him, hands in his pockets, and a disinterested look on his face.

     “Sorry, dad,” Shouyou apologizes once the two men reach him. “I was really excited to see Tobio…”

     “Good morning, Tsukishima, Yamaguchi!” Suga greets the newcomers enthusiastically.

     “Good morning, everybody!” Yamaguchi returns the greeting with a gentle smile, and Tsukishima nods silently at them from behind his husband.

     “We’re sorry about this brat,” Tsukishima says, placing one hand on Shouyou’s head. Shouyou glares up at him, and Tsukishima pushes his finger into his son’s cheek with a teasing smile. “He’s hard to control sometimes.”

     “Oh, don’t worry,” Suga says, waving his hand in front of his face. “I’m sure Tobio is just as excited to see Shou-kun!”

     “P-papa!” Tobio tugs at Suga’s pants, with an embarrassed look on his face. He blushes even deeper when Shouyou beams at him.

     “Why don’t you two go inside?” Yamaguchi says, leaning down to be face to face with Shouyou. “Dad and I will be there in a moment.”

     Shouyou nods excitedly, and grabs Tobio’s hand to drag him inside. He stops to say goodbye to his parents and the rest of them, and Tobio barely has time to wave at Daichi and Suga before being dragged away.

     “So, are all the gay dads in Tokyo bringing their kids to the same place, or what?” Bokuto asks once the two boys disappear behind the doors. Daichi, Suga, and Yamaguchi burst out laughing, and Tsukishima can’t stop an amused smile from spreading across his face.

     “The owners are old friends of us four,” Suga explains. “They’ve known Tobio and Shouyou ever since we brought them home. That’s why we recommended it to you.”

     “What, are they gay dads too?” Bokuto inquires.

     “They’re gay _moms_ ,” Daichi corrects him. “At least soon-to-be.”

     “Heh, I guess we’re at the age where everyone wants children,” Bokuto observes, getting all sort of agreeing reactions from the four other dads.

     “We’ll go inside, guys,” Yamaguchi says. “We want to greet Yachi and Kiyoko-san,” he turns to grab Tsukishima’s hand, and pull him inside just like Shouyou did to Tobio a few moments ago. “Let’s go, Tsukki!”

     “I’m coming, Tadashi, you can let go of me,” Tsukishima’s voice is the last one to reach them before they both disappear inside the building.

     “You should go inside too, buddy,” Bokuto says to Tetsurou, reaching out to brush a stray lock of hair from the boy’s forehead. “I’ll come pick you u- Holy cannoli, who’s that!?”

~•~

     Akaashi waits for Kenma to get out of the car, and holds out his hand for his son to grab. He closes the backseat door, and turns to face the small gathering of people standing just outside the pastel-colored building of the preschool.

     “Akaashi!” Suga smiles and waves in his direction, and Akaashi returns the gesture before walking over towards him, slow enough so that Kenma can follow him on his short legs.

     “Good morning, Sugawara-san, Sawamura-san,” he greets politely.

     “Morning!” Suga says, and Daichi politely nods his head as a greeting. He smiles sweetly at Kenma, who watches him with wide eyes. “Hello, Kenma-kun!”

     Kenma bows his head a little, shy and silent as always. Akaashi watches him fondly, and then returns his gaze to Suga’s face to keep the conversation going. Only then he notices the strange man standing next to Daichi, staring, open-mouthed, at something behind him. Akaashi turns around to see what has caught the man’s attention, and finds nothing but the empty sidewalk.

     _“Is he… staring at me?”_ Akaashi thinks, turning back around to examine the man more closely.

     His hair is a weird combination of black, grey, and white strands, tied haphazardly in a messy bun. He’s wearing what appears to be gym clothes, loose black sweats and a black and white jacket over a black t-shirt. He’s tall and broad-shouldered, and Akaashi can’t help but to notice how big and bulky his arms are under the fabric of his jacket. But the thing that catches Akaashi’s attention the most, are the man’s big, round, yellow eyes. And they are most _definitely_ fixed on him, there’s no doubt about it now.

     “Ah, you guys don’t know each other!” Suga’s voice is what finally tears Akaashi’s eyes from the man’s yellow ones. Akaashi quietly clears his throat, suddenly feeling a little warm in the face when he realizes how openly he was staring at the other man.

     _“Well, he_ was _staring at me first…”_

     “Let me introduce you: Akaashi, this is Bokuto, and his son Tetsurou.” Akaashi turns his gaze towards the young boy standing at the man’s – at Bokuto’s side, and gives him a sweet smile. The kid smiles back at him, and Akaashi notices how cute he is, with a toothy smile, and a mop of wild black hair on his head. “Bokuto, this is Akaashi, and his son Kenma.”

     “Nice to meet you, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi says, extending a hand towards him.

     But Bokuto doesn’t take it. He just keeps staring at Akaashi with the same dumb expression on his face, as if he hadn’t heard anything of what Suga just said.

     “Papa!” Tetsurou hisses after a few awkward seconds, tugging at Bokuto’s pants. This seems to bring the man back to earth, and he immediately scrambles to take Akaashi’s hand in his.

     “N-n-nice to meet you, Akaashi!” he manages to say, fumbling over his words, and pronouncing Akaashi’s name in a weird, overly-excited way.

     Akaashi can hear Suga and Daichi stifle a laugh next to him. Bokuto lets go of his hand, and a light blush spreads across his cheeks, still noticeable despite his efforts to hide it.

     “Hey, your name is Kenma, right?” It’s Tetsurou’s voice that dissipates the awkwardness that surrounds them. Akaashi looks down to see his son nodding his head slowly, eyes fixed on Tetsurou’s face. A wide, bright smile spreads across Tetsurou’s face, and he extends a hand towards Kenma, startling him a little. “I’m Tetsurou. You can call me Tetsu, if you want!”

     Kenma hesitates for a moment, before slowly taking the hand Tetsurou offered him.

     “I’m Kenma,” he mumbles, still watching the other boy intently.

     “Let’s go, Kenma!” Tetsurou waits for Kenma to nod, and then looks up at his dad, still smiling widely. “Bye, papa!”

     “Have fun, buddy!” Bokuto answers, returning the smile along with a wink.

     Tetsurou looks at Kenma for a moment, and starts walking towards the open doors without letting go of his hand. Kenma goes along with him, walking with ease, almost as if he had known the other boy his whole life. He turns to wave goodbye at his dad, and Akaashi slowly raises his hand in stunned silence to return the gesture.

     “Well, that’s unusual,” Suga observes, watching the two kids with his hands on his hips.

     “Kenma has never…” Akaashi mumbles, with his hand still in the air, and a shocked expression on his face. “I mean, he doesn’t like strangers. He has never done something like that before.”

     “Well, I guess my Tetsu’s just too charming to resist!” Bokuto says, and Akaashi turns to see him with his fingers entwined behind his neck, and a wide smile across his face. Akaashi blinks a couple times, and then lets his lips fall into a tiny smile of his own.

     “I guess he is.”

~•~

     Bokuto at least has the decency to wait until Akaashi has left to turn to Suga and grab him by the shoulders, bringing their faces as close as he knows he can without getting his ass beaten by Daichi.

     “Sugaaaaa!”

     “W-what!?”

     “Who is that man!?” Bokuto asks, frantically shaking Suga by the shoulders. “Is he a model? A prince? A _god?_ ”

     “Bokuto, calm down!” Suga exclaims, taking a hold of Bokuto’s wrists to stop him from shaking him any more. “He’s just a friend of ours.”

     “A friend!?” Bokuto finally lets go of Suga’s shoulders, and takes a step back. “How did you become friends with such an absolute beauty like him!?”

     “Akaashi owns a small bakery near our house,” Daichi explains, throwing an arm around Suga’s waist.

     “He makes the best strawberry shortcake in the entire world!” Suga adds, leaning his head on his husband’s shoulder.

     “And he _bakes_!?” Bokuto seems to be getting more and more excited with each passing second, judging by the number of stray hairs that leave his bun to hang across his forehead every time he moves. “Guys, that man is my _soulmate_!”

     “Easy there, soulmate-boy,” Daichi teases. “You don’t even know his first name!”

     “Irrelevant!” Bokuto refutes. “We’ll have plenty of time for those unimportant details after we get married.”

     “Well, it seems like it’s your lucky day,” Suga interferes. “Tetsu-kun and Kenma-kun seem to have really hit it off just right now.”

     “Yeah, and that’s unusual, believe me,” Daichi says. “Akaashi’s kid is incredibly shy. We’ve known him for over a year, and I still haven’t heard more than five consecutive words from him.”

     “If you like Akaashi so much, you superficial dork, you could arrange a play date for Tetsu-kun and Kenma-kun,” Suga suggests. “That way the kids can have fun, _and_ you’ll get to know Akaashi better!”

     “Ohhhhh, Suga, you’re a genius!” Bokuto cries out, extending his arms in a joyful gesture. “I could kiss you right now!” Daichi raises his eyebrows, and Bokuto takes a step back, defensively placing his hands in front of his chest. “Or not… You know, because your man would kill me.”

     “Damn right I would,” Daichi agrees with a smile, and Suga giggles softly.

~•~

     Akaashi wipes the sweat off his forehead with his arm, accidentally leaving a trail of flour on his face. He doesn’t realize, focused as he is on kneading the giant dough in front of him. He pushes his hands into it with all his might, and grabs it to bend the dough over itself to repeat the process.

     “Akaashi-san!” a voice rings from the front of the store. Akaashi turns around just in time to see his employee’s head popping in from the doorway of the kitchen. “It’s almost four o’clock, you should go pick up Kenma-kun.”

     “Ah, thanks, Yaku-san.” Akaashi wipes his flour-covered hands on his apron, and then takes it off to leave it on a nearby chair. “Can you put that dough in a bowl for me? It needs to rise for a couple hours.”

     “Sure!”

     Yaku diligently places the dough in a big bowl, and covers it with a rag while Akaashi washes his hands in the sink. He wipes them dry with a napkin, and heads to the front of the store.

     “I’ll be right back,” Akaashi calls back into the kitchen, grabbing his car keys from behind the counter. “Call me if anything happens.”

     “Yes, sir!” comes Yaku’s answer, and Akaashi lets himself smile at the eagerness in his voice, before leaving the store and heading to his car. “Oh, and you have flour on your forehead!”

     Akaashi hastily wipes if off, thankful for the fact that there were no costumers there to witness his flour-covered face.

~•~

     All the kids are waiting for their parents outside in the front garden, playing on the swing sets or running around, accompanied by their teachers. Akaashi inspects the crowd from his car, scanning the kids in search of Kenma. A short, male teacher with dark hair and glasses runs after the most problematic kids, expertly grabbing them just before they fall. Akaashi watches him with amusement for a while, and then continues to search for Kenma.

     He sees Daichi and Suga’s son playing with a shorter, red-headed kid, right next to a small, blonde teacher with a barely noticeable baby bump. A taller, dark-haired woman with glasses sits on a bench nearby, watching over the kids with attentive eyes. Akaashi figures that they should be Yachi and Kiyoko, the owners of the place, and Daichi and Suga’s friends they so fondly talked about when they recommended this preschool to him.

     Then he sees Kenma, sitting at the same bench, sandwiched between Kiyoko and Tetsurou. The boys aren’t talking, but they seem comfortable in their silence. Kenma wiggles his dangling feet like he always does, eyes lost in the distance, and then turns to look at Tetsurou when he points at something in front of them. Akaashi watches them interact for a while, and a soft smile spreads across his lips when he sees his usually reserved son talk so easily to a boy who was no more than a stranger just that morning.

     He gets out of the car, steps through the open door of the wooden fence that surrounds the front yard, and walks over towards Kenma, narrowly avoiding running kids and scattered toys. Suddenly, the teacher with the glasses he saw earlier runs into him in his pursue of a small, yelling kid brandishing a plastic shovel.

     “Oh, my god, I'm so sorry!” he apologizes profusely, covering his mouth with his hands.

     “It’s okay,” Akaashi reassures him. “It looks like you have a lot to handle around here.”

     “I’d be lying if I said I don’t,” the teacher jokes with a warm smile. “I’m Takeda Ittetsu, I’m in charge of the third-graders.”

     “Nice to meet you, Takeda-sensei. My name is Akaashi Keiji.”

     “Are you here to pick someone up, Akaashi-san?”

     “Yes, my son Kenma,” Akaashi says, pointing at his son. “He’s in grade two.”

     “Ah, he’s one of Shimizu-san’s kids,” Takeda explains, and then turns towards the bench where Kenma is sitting. “Shimizu-san, Kenma-kun’s father is here!”

     Kiyoko turns to look at them and immediately stands up. She has a gentle smile on her face when she reaches them, bowing her head as a greeting.

     “Thank you, Takeda-sensei,” she says. Takeda nods his head at both of them before resuming his wild chase, leaving Akaashi and Kiyoko alone. “My name is Shimizu Kiyoko. I’m Kenma-kun’s teacher,” Kiyoko introduces herself in a soft voice.

     “My name is Akaashi Keiji. I’m a friend of Sugawara-san and Sawamura-san. They recommended your place to me,” Akaashi explains, politely returning her smile.

     “Ah, that’s wonderful!” Kiyoko’s face lights up even more. She throws a glance at Kenma from over her shoulder, and then turns back to Akaashi. “Your son is very well-behaved, and very smart, too. You must be very proud.”

     “Thank you very much,” Akaashi bows his head slightly, his chest swelling with pride at the teacher’s compliments.

     Kiyoko smiles one more time in response, and then turns to Kenma.

     “Kenma-kun, your father is here!”

     Both he and Tetsurou look up, and only then Kenma notices Akaashi standing there. He jumps off the bench and starts making his way over to his father, and then stops all of sudden. He turns around to say goodbye to Tetsurou, and the other boy smiles and waves at him.

     Kenma grabs Akaashi’s hand as soon as he reaches him, but the boy’s eyes are still fixed on Tetsurou. Akaashi quickly and politely exchanges goodbyes with Kiyoko, and then heads to his car, Kenma in tow.

     After they are both properly seated in the car, and Akaashi is about to start the engine, he notices a familiar figure approaching the building. Bokuto’s strange hair makes him immediately recognizable as he steps into the building’s front garden, looking around for his son. Tetsurou spots him immediately, and runs to his encounter with a cheerful _“Papa!”_ that even Akaashi gets to hear through the closed window of his car.

     Bokuto bends his knees and spreads his arms to receive his son’s excited hug, and then twirls him around a couple times. The gesture manages to make Akaashi smile a little, and he spares one last glance in their direction before starting the car to drive away.

     “Did you have fun today?” Akaashi asks Kenma once they are a couple blocks away from the preschool. He can see Kenma absently nodding his head on the rearview mirror. “I’m glad, kitty-cat.”

     Akaashi is surprised from the lack of response his teasing nickname gets, but he figures Kenma must be tired. He decides against asking any more questions for now, at least until they get home, but Kenma’s voice reaches him from the backseat a couple seconds later.

     “I played a lot with Tetsu today,” he says, looking out the window. “Shouyou was also there. We played a little during recess.”

     Akaashi nods his head with an appreciative hum to let Kenma know he’s listening. He knows that his son is good friends with Shouyou, even with Yamaguchi and Tsukishima’s son being younger than him, but it’s Kenma’s new friendship with Tetsurou that really makes him curious.

     “Did you get to sit with Tetsurou during class?”

     “No, he’s a year older than me,” Kenma says, and Akaashi notices the disappointment in his voice.

     “Oh, I see. Did you make any friends in your classroom?” Akaashi asks, and he watches on the rearview mirror as Kenma shakes his head. _“Well, being friends with Tetsurou is a start,”_ he thinks.

     “But Shimizu-sensei is nice,” Kenma adds after a while. “Her hair is pretty.”

     Akaashi laughs at his son’s observation, and then attentively nods his head as Kenma keeps talking about his day. He’s happy with Kenma’s unusual talkativeness, and he enjoys every little detail the kid shares with him, from the color of the drawing he did today, to how good Tetsurou is at making paper airplanes.

     “Are you excited to go back tomorrow?” Akaashi asks when Kenma seems to run out of things to tell him.

     “Yes!” Kenma answers almost immediately, and Akaashi can’t stop the grin that spreads across his lips at his son’s evident excitement.

~•~

     “And then Kenma taught me a cool new way to tie my shoelaces! Wait ‘till I show it to you, papa, you’re gonna love it!”

     “I’m sure I will, buddy!”

     “Then, I taught Kenma how to make paper airplanes, but he was really bad at it. So, I promised I would keep teaching him tomorrow, and then we can have paper airplane races!”

     While his son rambles on and on about paper airplanes and shoelaces, Bokuto turns off the engine in front of their house, and gets out of the car to open the backseat door for him. Tetsurou jumps out of the car, still talking non-stop, and Bokuto lets out a fond laugh when he catches sight of his son’s excited face.

     “You really like this Kenma kid, huh?”

     “Yeah, he’s super cool!” Tetsurou answers without hesitating, eliciting another bout of laughter from his dad. “He doesn’t talk much, but I think that’s kinda cool too!”

     “Oh, so he’s the ‘cool and mysterious’ type?” Bokuto asks as they make their way to their front door.

     “I guess.”

     “So he’s just like me!”

     “You’re not mysterious at all, papa!”

     “But I’m still cool, right?”

     “Of course!” Tetsurou exclaims, hugging one Bokuto’s leg and tumbling over his feet in the process.

     “Thank God! I was worried you didn’t think I was cool anymore.” Bokuto ruffles Tetsurou’s hair on his way to retrieve his keys from his pocket, and gets a giant smile in return.

     “I will _always_ think you’re cool!”

     “Even when you’re a lousy teenager and start thinking I’m lame?”

     “You can’t be lame _and_ cool,” Tetsurou argues as his dad pushes him inside the house. “So I will _never_ think you’re lame!”

     Bokuto watches, with evident affection on his face, as Tetsurou takes off his shoes and hangs his backpack on the wall before running into the house. He takes off his shoes as well and follows him inside, shouting an inviting offering of hot chocolate that is immediately and eagerly accepted.

~•~

     Tetsurou practically runs out the car the next morning when he spots Kenma at the front doors of the preschool, holding Akaashi’s hand. Bokuto barely has time to close the door after his son before Tetsurou is already at Kenma’s side, greeting him and Akaashi with obvious enthusiasm. Kenma gives him a shy smile and holds his hand to walk together into the building, just as Bokuto reaches the front doors.

     “Hey, Tetsu!” he calls out, and both Tetsurou and Kenma turn around to look at him. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

     “Oh, bye, papa!” Tetsurou waves shortly at him before disappearing into the hallway with Kenma at his side.

     Bokuto watches his son go in stunned silence, clearly shocked at the lack of an affectionate goodbye. He exchanges a look with Akaashi, who shrugs with a sympathetic smile.

     “They grow up so fast,” Bokuto mumbles, wiping a fake tear from his eye.

     Akaashi laughs with amusement at the gesture. It’s a gentle, tinkling sound, Bokuto notices, and he finds his lips forming an absent smile at the way Akaashi covers his mouth when he laughs.

     “They certainly do,” Akaashi agrees, staring fondly at the kids as they disappear behind the doorway.

     A couple moments pass by in silence, and Akaashi is about to announce he’s leaving when Bokuto breaks the silence.

     “So, it looks like our kids really get along, huh?”

     Akaashi blinks at him, surprised, and then nods his head in agreement.

     “They do. I haven’t seen Kenma get along so well with someone since he met Shouyou.”

     “So, I was thinking,” Bokuto starts, scratching the back of his head without meeting Akaashi’s eyes. “Maybe we could arrange a play date for them! Like, we could take them to the park, have a little picnic, it’d be nice! We can invite Daichi and Suga so they can bring Tobio as well, and maybe Yamaguchi and Tsukishima can bring Shouyou too, since he’s such good friends with your son! I mean, I think it’d be nice, but we don’t have to do it if you don’t think it’s a good idea, of course, it’s just that I-”

     “That’d be nice.” Akaashi’s gentle voice puts a stop to Bokuto’s nervous rambling, accompanied by an amused smile that puts a light blush on Bokuto’s cheeks.

     “Great!” Bokuto exclaims, with a big grin taking over his face. “I’ll talk to Suga and Yamaguchi and ask them when they’re free, and then I’ll let you know!”

     “Alright. I guess you’ll need my phone number, then.”

     They quickly exchange numbers, while Bokuto tries his best not to say anything stupid, or choke on his own spit or something, and then Akaashi parts with a polite goodbye.

     Bokuto watches him get into his car and drive away, with a dumb grin still clinging to his lips. He stares at Akaashi’s name amongst the rest of his contacts, and his smile widens even more.

     “Papa?” Bokuto turns around, startled, to see Tetsurou standing behind him with a confused expression. “Why are you still here?”

     “I-you-it’s…” Bokuto stammers for a moment, and then crosses his arms over his chest in a commanding gesture. “What are _you_ doing here? Go to class, Tetsu!”

     “Yeeeees!” Tetsurou sing-songs, walking away with a smile that Bokuto is almost certain was meant to be teasing.

     Bokuto jogs over to his car, glancing at the time on his phone to make sure he isn’t late for work. He’s about to block the screen when his eyes land on Akaashi’s name again, and he can’t stop himself from letting out a loud “Yahoo!” before starting the car and driving away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, there! I hope you enjoyed the first installment of what I like to call Owl Dads and their Kittens.
> 
> I just wanted to clarify, in order to avoid any confusion, that preschool isn't mandatory in Japan, so japanese parents take their kids to places called "Yochien" and "Hoikuen", which resemble nursery homes and kindergartens, and are intended for kids ages 3-5. You can research more about it if you want, there's plenty of info on google about these topics, and it is quite interesting!
> 
> I also want to thank my lovely, lovely beta, [miss-macabre-grey](http://miss-macabre-grey.tumblr.com/), who always does a fantastic job at helping me out with my stories! She also drew [this perfect, adorable baby Kenma in his kitten onesie](http://fandom-grey.tumblr.com/post/137968809640/little-kid-kenma-in-a-cat-onesie-based-on), please go look at it because it's great and I'm in love.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of these dorky dads. Comments and kudos are always appreciated, and you can also come talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr :)


	2. Chapter 2

     Bokuto paces up and down the living room, casting nervous glances at the coffee table where his phone rests. He comes to a halt, eyes fixed on the device, and takes a deep breath. He extends his hands towards it, and retreats it almost immediately. Bokuto’s eyebrows knit together, and he stares at the cell phone like it has just cursed his entire family.

     The phone vibrates loudly all of sudden, making Bokuto jump, and let out a very shrill, undignified screech. Mumbling a thousand amusingly inoffensive insults against the _“dang demonic machine of the devil,”_ Bokuto picks it up and unlocks it to read the text.

     **From: Sugawara Koushi, at 6:37 p.m.**

 **** _Did you call Akaashi already, soulmate-boy?_

     Bokuto flops on the couch with a groan, holding the phone to his chest. Still brooding, he quickly taps a response, and then drops the phone into his lap after hitting the “send” button. It vibrates a couple minutes later with Suga’s response, and Bokuto reluctantly picks it up to read the text.

     **From: Sugawara Koushi, at 6:39 p.m.**

 **** _Should I call him, then? :)_

     Bokuto glares at Suga’s perfectly constructed message for a moment, before sending him an eloquent _“don’t u dare >:0”_ with a series of aggressive taps on the touch screen. He doesn’t drop the phone this time, and instead navigates to his contacts, where Akaashi’s name rests among the first ones.

     “Alright, Koutarou, you can do this,” he mumbles to himself, and then presses _“call”_ before he can start over-thinking again.

     With every ring that passes, he is tempted to hang up, throw his phone away, and hide in Tetsurou’s room where he can hear him play with his Lego’s. At least he could distract himself by building the sickest Lego car ever. Instead of that, Bokuto stays put on the couch, getting progressively more nervous with every second that goes by without Akaashi picking up.

     _“Maybe he’s busy,”_ he thinks, biting absently on his lower lip. _“I’ll call him later when I-”_

     Akaashi’s soft voice interrupts his train of thought. More like it makes it crash, really, because it takes Bokuto by surprise so much, that the only thing he can manage as a greeting is “Hey, hey, hey, Akaashi!”

     Bokuto’s unnecessarily enthusiastic greeting is met by absolute silence, giving him enough time to wince, and slap a hand against his forehead.

     _“God damn it, Koutarou!”_ he mentally scolds himself, shaking his head and grabbing at his hair. _“You need to chill, man!”_

“Bokuto-san?” Akaashi’s voice finally reaches him from the other side of the line once more, and Bokuto forces himself to recompose at the speed of light.

     “Yes, it’s me!” Bokuto clears his throat and takes a deep breath. He stands up from the couch and begins to pace the living room again, still angry at himself because of his previous failed attempt at normal communication. “I’m calling you because of that thing we talked about the other day.”

     “About the play date?” Akaashi questions.

     “Yes, that… thing, yes.”

     _“Wow, Koutarou. You’re so eloquent.”_ Bokuto starts another round of mental self-beating, stopping his pacing to close his eyes, and cover them with the hand he’s not using to hold the phone. _“Oh, boy, let’s hope Tetsu gets his communication skills from you, you’re so skilled, man!”_

“Bokuto-san, are you still there?” One more time, Akaashi’s voice brings him back to earth, and Bokuto hurries to answer.

     “Yes, I’m here! Sorry, I… got distracted.” Bokuto resumes his walking around the room, focusing on getting his next words out as calmly as possible. “I talked to Suga and Yamaguchi like I told you the other day.”

     “Oh, what did they say?” Akaashi sounds interested in his answer, Bokuto notices, and that gives him a small confidence boost.

     “They’re both free on Saturday, and so are Daichi and Tsukishima.” Bokuto sits back down on the couch, finally relaxing a little. “But I doubt Tsukki will want to come, you know how he is.”

     “I’m pretty sure that the right amount of pouting from Shouyou and Yamaguchi-san will be enough to convince him,” Akaashi jokes, and Bokuto laughs heartily.

     “And he’s funny, too,” Bokuto mumbles absently, with a dumb smile adorning his face.

     “Excuse me?”

     “N-n-nothing!” Bokuto stammers, and the urge to repeatedly slam his face against the wall invades him at full force. “Anyway, what do you think of Saturday?”

     “I can go on Saturday,” Akaashi answers after a moment of silent consideration that only lasts a couple seconds, but is enough to send Bokuto into momentary panic. “I can ask my employee can take care of the store for me.”

     “Great! Um, Suga said we could go to the park that’s near his house. You know which one?”

     “I do. Did you guys set a particular time for us to meet?”

     “We were thinking maybe eleven-ish, so we could have lunch there with the kids.”

     “Ok, eleven it is.”

     “It’s a date, then!” Bokuto exclaims. He feels his cheeks heating up for what feels like the thousand time in the last couple minutes, and scrambles to fix his newest mistake. “I-I mean, a play date! It’s a play date!”

     Akaashi’s side of the line is silent for a few moments, before being filled by a snort, and a small chuckle. Bokuto laughs nervously, but his shoulders lose a considerable amount of tension at the lovely sound of Akaashi’s laughter.

     “It’s a play date, then, Bokuto-san.” His voice is still laced with amusement, but it’s a gentle one that reminds Bokuto of the way Akaashi covers his mouth when he laughs, and the way small crinkles form around his eyes when he smiles. “Goodbye.”

     “See ya!”

     Akaashi is the one to hang up, leaving Bokuto with the sound of his heartbeat on his own ears, and a wide, dumb grin that slowly takes over his entire face.

     “Hey, Tetsu!” he calls out, placing his phone back on the coffee table. Tetsurou sticks his head out the doorway of his bedroom, giving his dad a curious look. “We got a date this Saturday, kiddo!”

~•~

     A little over an hour has passed since his phone call with Bokuto ended, but Akaashi stills finds himself chuckling when he remembers the man’s stammered _“I-I mean, a play date! It’s a play date!”_ Akaashi doesn’t know why he finds it so funny, but he laughs one more time before sliding off his apron and hanging it on a hook on the wall, right next to the doorframe.

     The thing is, Bokuto is an interesting man. Not in an intellectual way (definitely not, if the way he handles phone calls is any indicator), or a mysterious way. If anything, Bokuto is like an open book, very easy to read. And that’s what makes him so interesting. He’s like no one Akaashi has ever met before, with his weird hair, his wide yellow eyes, and his loud, loud voice.

     Maybe that's the reason why Akaashi is stuck thinking about him hours after all of their interactions, trying to figure out the real meaning behind his owlish-glances and ridiculous rambling.  It has never happened to him before, and quite frankly, he doesn’t really know what to think of it. He does know, however, that the prospect of seeing him again on Saturday has left a warm feeling of excitement in his chest. He doesn’t know what to think of that, either.

     With those thoughts in mind, Akaashi steps out of the kitchen and into the front of the store. Yaku is standing behind the cash register, focused on counting money and finishing the inventories of the day. Behind the counter, sitting on a small, cushioned chair is Kenma, completely fixated on playing a game on Akaashi’s phone.

     Akaashi moves to the glass doors at the front of the store, and turns the small, wooden sign that hangs there to let outsiders know that the bakery is closed for the day. Then he moves to cover most of the products on display, and put away the rest inside the fridge. He checks that everything is in its place at the kitchen before returning to the front, turning off the lights and closing the door behind him.

     “Today was a good day of sales, Akaashi-san!” Yaku announces with excitement, closing the cash register.

     “That’s good! Did you get any tips?”

     “Yes!” Yaku answers with a smile, shaking his tip jar to make the coins rattle inside of it.

     “I’m glad.” Akaashi gives his employee a gentle smile, and Yaku responds with a shy chuckle.

     Yaku leaves first, taking his bag from behind the counter and giving a polite, yet warm goodbye to Akaashi and Kenma before stepping out the glass doors. Akaashi gives one more look at the store to ensure that nothing is out of place, before turning to Kenma, who has already put away his game.

     “Let’s go home, kitty-cat.”

     “Stop calling me that,” Kenma complains with a small scowl. He slides off the chair and walks over his dad to take his extended hand in his tiny fingers, ready to head home.

~•~

     Akaashi watches from the doorway as Kenma, clad in his recently-washed kitten onesie, climbs on his bed and hastily pulls the covers over himself. His son stares at him with wide eyes, and Akaashi lets out a chuckle before approaching Kenma’s bed.

     He fixes the covers around Kenma’s face, and smoothes them out with care under his son’s intense gaze. Once he’s done, he meets Kenma’s eyes and gives him a fond smile.

     “Goodnight, Kenma.” Akaashi leans down to press a soft kiss on Kenma’s forehead. He straightens his back and turns to leave, just as Kenma is assaulted by a big, drawn-out yawn.

     Akaashi is about to leave the bedroom, soft smile still dancing on his lips, when Kenma’s voice reaches his ears softly, along with the rustling sound of the boy moving in his bed.

     “Goodnight, Keiji.”

     Akaashi freezes on his spot, holding the doorway with one hand. His smile vanishes as he turns to look at his son from over his shoulder. Kenma’s eyes are already closed, and he has turned around into a fetal position, holding onto the covers.

     “You know you can call me ‘dad’, right?”

     But Kenma doesn’t answer. He has probably already fallen asleep, Akaashi thinks. But as he heaves a silent sigh, and closes the bedroom door behind him, he can’t stop himself from wondering if maybe Kenma had ignored him.

~•~

     Bokuto steps out of the shower with a big, satisfied sigh, energetically toweling his hair, and sending different-colored strands to stick out of his head in various directions. He throws the damp towel over his shoulder and wipes the condensation off the mirror with his hand. He leans in to inspect his hair, grimacing a little at its disheveled state.

     “I should do something about this,” he mumbles, pinching a white strand of hair between his fingers and rolling it around.

     He carefully runs his fingers through his hair to comb it down, but a quick glance at the mirror reveals that the multi-colored mess on top of his head still needs some extra help. Bokuto scrunches up his nose and places his hands on his hips, looking at the products that line the tiny shelf in search of something he could use. His eyes finally land on a tub of scented hair wax, and just when he’s reaching out to grab it, Tetsurou’s voice makes its way into the bathroom.

     “Papa?”

     Bokuto freezes in place, hand still extended towards the product. Something tells him that this is not a day for hair-styling either.

     “What is it, Tetsu?”

     “Um… The milk spilled…”

     “The milk spilled?” Bokuto repeats, finally retreating his hand to rest it on his hip again. “By itself?”

     “No,” Tetsurou answers, and Bokuto can practically hear the engines of his son’s mind working at full force. “It was the milk fairies.”

     Bokuto’s eyebrow knit together just above the bridge of his nose. _That one’s new._

“The milk fairies?” he repeats.

     “Yes!” Tetsurou exclaims, sounding surer this time. “They are fairies that spill the milk. Don’t you know them, papa?”

     “I most certainly do not, buddy,” Bokuto says with a tiresome sigh. He takes the towel from his shoulder and wraps it around his waist. “I’m coming, don’t make any more messes!”

     He casts one last longing look in the hair wax’s direction, and stops to grab one of his loyal hair ties, before making his way to the kitchen.

~•~

     Everyone is already there by the time Bokuto and Tetsurou arrive at the park, sitting on a large blanket and conversing animatedly. Shouyou, Tobio, and Kenma are over at the playground a few meters away from their parents, playing together.

     “Hey, everybody!” Bokuto greets them once he reaches the communal blanket. Suga, Akaashi, and Yamaguchi greet him with a smile, while Daichi and Tsukishima nod their heads in his direction.  “Sorry we’re late, _somebody,_ ” he stops to stare pointedly at Tetsurou, who blinks innocently at him. “Spilled milk _all_ over the kitchen floor.”

     “It wasn’t me, papa, I told you! It was the milk fairies!”

     “Okay, milk fairy, go play.” Bokuto takes his son’s backpack, and watches him run to the playground before flopping down on the blanket between Suga and Akaashi.

     “Milk fairies?” Daichi voices everyone’s thoughts, barely holding back a teasing grin.

     “Don’t ask.” Bokuto shakes his head, but still smiles in Tetsurou’s direction when he sees him talking to Kenma at what looks like a hundred words per second.

     “Hey, what’s with this weird bun you’ve been wearing lately?” Suga asks, grabbing Bokuto’s hair and squishing it. “You should let your hair down sometime.”

     “Believe me, you don’t want me to do that.”

     “Anything’s better than those weird horns you used to love so much,” Daichi interjects with a teasing smile, earning a loud snort from Suga.

     “Hey, I still love my horns!” Bokuto exclaims. He crosses his arms over his chest and pouts slightly, glaring at Daichi. “It’s just that they take _a lot_ of time.”

     “And Tetsu-kun takes a lot of time too, huh?” Yamaguchi chimes in with an amused smile.

     “Yeah, especially with his milk-spilling fairies,” Bokuto jokes. Tsukishima scoffs, and Yamaguchi giggles, apparently already knowing what his husband is about to say.

     “You got it easy,” Tsukishima says, staring at his son playing in the distance. “Our brat went through an animal rescuer phase a few months ago.”

     “What?” Bokuto asks, laughter already tinting his voice at Tsukishima’s strange remark.

     “He used to go out in the yard and come back crying with all sort of injured animals in his hands,” Yamaguchi explains, shaking his head at the memory. “And he cried until we agreed to take care of them.”

     “Birds, lizards, bugs,” Tsukishima enumerates, and then his face scrunches up in disgust. “He even brought us a rat one day!”

     Everybody but him bursts out laughing, the image of Shouyou carrying an injured rat into Yamaguchi and Tsukishima’s kitchen being too funny to resist.

     “You should’ve seen Tsukki’s face!” Yamaguchi chokes out, clutching to his stomach and nearly rolling of the floor with laughter. “He nearly _cried_!”

     “Shut up, Tadashi, I almost had to take you to the hospital when he brought you that toad!” Tsukishima defends, effectively inducing another round of loud, stomach-clutching laughter from his friends and his husband.

     “Where did he even get all those animals from?” Suga asks one his laughter recedes, wiping the tears from his eyes.

     “We never found out,” Yamaguchi answers with a shrug. “He stopped bringing them in one day, so we assumed he had managed to take care of every single breathing creature in our yard.”

     “God, I hope there aren’t any more rats in there…” Tsukishima mumbles with a shake of his head.

     “Well, Tobio is fine as long as he has a ball,” Daichi says, leaning back on his elbows to watch his son run after Shouyou.

     “A ball, and Shou-kun, that's all he needs to be happy,” Suga adds. “As much as he refuses to admit it.”

     As the rest keep talking and sharing stories of their respective kids, Akaashi is lost deep in his thoughts, eyes fixed on Kenma as he approaches Shouyou and Tobio, followed by Tetsurou. Bokuto’s voice calling his name is what snaps him out of his trance, and he quickly turns his head to face him.

     “You got it easy too, don’t you, Akaashi?”

     “Me?”

     “I mean, Kenma looks like he’s a cool kid,” Bokuto explains. He gestures his head towards the playground, smile fixed on his face. “Tetsu always talks about how quiet and cool he is.”

     “Ah, yes, Kenma is a really good kid,” Akaashi agrees, returning his gaze to his son. “He’s quiet, and he never gets in trouble.”

     “But?” Bokuto’s voice surprises him again after a while.

     Akaashi turns to face him one more time, noticing how the other four are talking amongst each other now, leaving him and Bokuto to a fairly private conversation.

     “But?” Akaashi repeats, confused.

     “I mean, I kinda thought you were gonna say something else,” Bokuto explains bashfully, scratching the back of his head and averting his gaze. “Guess I was wrong…”

     Akaashi blinks a couple times, surprised at Bokuto’s unexpected observation. He gives in and heaves a sigh after a while, earning the other man’s attention back.

     “Sometimes I feel like… Kenma doesn’t think of me as his dad,” he admits after a beat of silence. The words feel heavy leaving his mouth, and they feel heavy on his chest when he finally lets them out. But when he looks into Bokuto’s eyes, and finds nothing but openness, understanding, and genuine interest, he suddenly feels like he can’t stop the words from leaving his lips. “He doesn’t even _call_ me dad, he calls me by my name. I mean, it’s been more than a year, and I… I don’t know,” he finishes with a sigh, letting his head drop in defeat.

     Bokuto hums softly, absently nodding his head while he takes in Akaashi’s words. Akaashi is beginning to feel nervous about his lack of response, when he feels Bokuto’s yellow eyes falling back into his.

     “Kenma is adopted too, right?” Akaashi nods his head, and Bokuto waves his hand with a click of his tongue. “Those things take time, you don’t have to worry about it.”

     “Was Tetsurou-kun the same when you brought him home?” Akaashi asks, hopefulness evident in his voice.

     “Nah, he was calling me ‘papa’ before we even got into my car.” Bokuto laughs heartily at the memory, but then stops when he notices the defeat in Akaashi’s expression. “But, hey, all kids are different!” he hurries to reassure him, earning a sad look from behind lowered eyelashes. Bokuto takes a moment to appreciate the sight of Akaashi’s long, curved lashes, before continuing. “I mean, Kenma is obviously shyer and more reserved than Tetsu. You can’t expect the same from both of them, you know what I mean?”

     “I do,” Akaashi mumbles absently, taking in Bokuto’s words.

     “Just give him some time, and don’t worry too much about it!” Bokuto finishes with a big smile, and Akaashi soon finds himself responding with a tiny smile of his own.

     “Thank you, Bokuto-san.”

     “Don’t worry about it!”

     Their peace is soon disrupted by a loud wail coming from the playground, followed by an even louder cry of _“Shouyou!”_

     All the parents quickly turn their heads towards the source of the noise, to find Shouyou sprawled face down in front of the swings, one foot still hanging from the wooden plank. The other kids surround him in various degrees of worry, their wide-eyed gazes jumping from their fallen friend to the adults a couple feet from them.

     Yamaguchi gasps loudly, and both he and Tsukishima spring up immediately. Shouyou looks up slowly, and then smiles and offers a shaky thumbs-up in his parents’ direction. Both of them sigh with relief, and then hurry to make their way towards their son, still stretched across the ground in a clearly uncomfortable position.

     While the other three watch Yamaguchi scoop up his son in his arms, and Tsukishima carefully wipe up the dirt from his unruly orange locks, Suga reaches into his bag and retrieves a tiny first-aid kit.

     “I think they might need this,” he explains, just as Shouyou brushes his fingers against his forehead, and then makes a horrified expression when he finds that they are smudged with blood.

~•~

     Yamaguchi and Tsukishima are the first ones to leave, with their son sporting a lovely polka-dot band-aid on his forehead. As they walk away from the group, Shouyou balances himself between his dads, holding onto their hands to wiggle his feet in the air. He definitely doesn’t look like he had a playground accident no more than a couple hours ago.

     “We should be going too,” Akaashi says after the three of them are out of sight, staring at his watch. “I’d feel bad leaving Yaku alone at the store for too long.”

     “Go, you workaholic,” Suga teases him, shooing him away with his hands. Akaashi smiles at the playful gesture, and then politely bows his head.

     “Goodbye, everybody.”

     “Goodbye, Mr. Pretty!” Tetsurou answers loudly from his father’s side.

     A small moment of silence passes, before Bokuto breaks into a loud laughter, soon followed by Daichi and Suga.

     “Mr. Pretty!?” Akaashi repeats, bewildered. He feels his cheeks heating up a little at the kid’s unexpected nickname, and the adults’ uncontainable amusement.

     “Don’t worry, Akaashi,” Suga says once he stops laughing, clasping him on the shoulder. “I was Mr. Pretty for a while too.”

     “And I was Mr. Big Guy, so it could be worse,” Daichi adds between bouts of laughter, holding onto Bokuto and clutching to his stomach.

     Their words do nothing to soothe Akaashi’s embarrassment, who watches in horror as Bokuto keeps laughing, now on the verge of tears.

     “I’m sorry, Akaashi,” he apologizes breathlessly. “I thought Tetsu was already over his nick-naming phase!”

     Akaashi looks at Tetsurou, who in turn smiles widely at him, and allows himself a small chuckle despite his embarrassment.

     “I guess not,” he observes.

     It takes a little while for Daichi and Bokuto to calm down long enough to say a proper goodbye to Akaashi and Kenma before they leave. Akaashi still feels a little flustered as they make their way to their car, and he most definitely isn’t expecting Kenma’s next words.

     “Can I call you ‘Mr. Pretty’ too?”

     “I’d rather you didn’t…”

~•~

     Suga and Daichi leave almost immediately too (after reassuring a very distraught Tobio that _no, Shouyou is not gonna die because he fell from the swing, sweetie_ for the ninth time that afternoon), leaving Bokuto and Tetsurou by themselves.

     “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, buddy,” Bokuto says, reaching out to ruffle Tetsurou’s hair. They are silent for a while, letting the soft afternoon breeze softly rustle their hair and clothes, until Bokuto yells out a quick _“Race you to the car!”_ before sprinting across the park towards the street.

     “Hey, that’s not fair!” Tetsurou calls out, reaching down to grab his backpack before running after his dad.

     Despite the extra length of his dad’s legs playing against him, Tetsurou manages to reach the car before him. He tries to open the backseat door, and then whines when he finds it closed. Bokuto reaches the car a few seconds later, hurrying to unlock the doors with the remote and climb inside before his son.

     “I win!” he announces proudly once Tetsurou is sitting behind him.

     “What? No, you cheated!”

     “Of course not!”

     “You totally did! _Two times!_ ”

     “No, Tetsu, it was the race fairies!” Bokuto turns around on his seat to give his son the biggest shit-eating grin he can manage. Tetsurou narrows his eyes at him, and then crosses his arms over his chest and pointedly looks away from him.

     “Race fairies don’t exist. You’re still a cheater!”

     Bokuto gasps loudly, grabbing his chest with a look of absolute heartbreak.

     “Tetsu, you don’t believe in fairies?” he whispers gravelly. Tetsurou looks back at him and gives him a winning smile.

     “Only the milk fairies,” he says, and Bokuto can’t do anything else but laugh heartily at his son’s antics.

~•~

     Bokuto’s phone rings the next morning right after breakfast. He scrambles to pick it up, startling Tetsurou into dropping the clothes he’s diligently taking to the laundry room when he speeds past him towards the kitchen where his phone is. One glace at the screen instantly shatters his previous hopes about the identity of the caller, and he picks up with a badly contained sigh.

     “Hey, Suga.”

     “Wow, you sound disappointed,” Suga points out, and Bokuto can clearly discern the amusement laced in his voice. “Did you think I was Akaashi?”

     “Yes,” Bokuto admits, smiling pitifully at the sound of Suga’s chuckle from the other side of the line.

     “Speaking of Akaashi, I saw you two talking quite closely yesterday, soulmate-boy.” Suga’s voice acquires a teasing note that makes Bokuto’s cheeks heat up a little.

     “Oh, that was nothing. I was just reassuring him about something, no big deal,” Bokuto explains, absently scratching the back of his head. His mind immediately jumps to his earlier conversation with Akaashi; the usual softness of his voice, tinted with an amount of emotion that Bokuto had never imagined could fill Akaashi’s words, the way he looked up at him from under his eyelashes, the way his face lit up at Bokuto’s words, and how sweet his smile looked when he thanked him…

     “Oh, so you’re the ‘reassuring’ type, how sweet!” Suga’s voice snaps him out of his thoughts, and makes his cheeks heat up once again. “You should thank me, you know? I’m the one who came up with the idea of a play date.”

     “Yeah, man, you’re the be-!”

     “And I know exactly how you can thank me!” Suga interrupts him, sounding even more cheery than before. “You see, I need to pick something up, and-”

     “You want me to pick it up for you.” Bokuto finishes for him.

      “I wanted to go myself, but, we’re kind of in the middle of a crisis, and I’m pretty sure it’s gonna last a while.”

     Before Bokuto can ask any questions, Suga is already moving the phone away from his face to let him hear what’s going down over at his house. He can hear the distinctive sound of crying and sniffling, followed by Daichi’s voice in the distance.

     _“Yes, Tobio, I promise Shouyou isn’t gonna die, you’ll see him tomorrow!”_

     Bokuto tries to stifle his laughter once Suga returns the phone to his ear, but he fails completely when he hears Tobio’s wails intensifying.

     “As you can hear, Daichi is about to cry, too, and I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave them alone in this time of emotional turmoil,” Suga explains over the noise of his crying son and desperate husband.

     “I can’t believe he’s still hung up on that,” Bokuto comments with an incredulous laugh.

     “He had a nightmare about it and now he won’t stop crying,” Suga explains, trying to sound tired, but instead sounding very amused.

     _“Suga, get over here and help me, I don’t know what to do anymore!”_ Daichi’s voice reaches Bokuto from Suga’s side of the line, and he _does_ sound like he’s about to join his son and begin to cry.

     “I’m coming, I’m coming!” Suga calls out, before returning his attention to Bokuto over the phone. “So, will you be a sweetheart and do that for me?”

     “You know I can’t say no after hearing that,” Bokuto jokes, making Suga laugh quietly.

     “I’ll text you the address later, then, soulmate-boy. See ya!”

     Suga hangs up before Bokuto can say anything else, but he can still hear the sweet sound of what Daichi usually calls “Suga’s trademark Mama Voice” before the call ends. As he places the phone back down on the counter, Bokuto is left to wonder whether Suga’s calming tone was meant for his son, or his husband.

~•~

     “Papa,” Tetsurou calls, swinging their joined hands back and forth as they walk down the street together. Bokuto merely hums in response, eyes fixed on his phone. He throws a quick glance to his surroundings, and then returns his gaze to the makeshift map Suga sent him over text message. “Do you know how to make paper boats?”

     “Yup.”

     “Can you teach me?” Tetsurou asks, looking up at him with wide eyes.

     “Of course, buddy. You want to have paper boat races with Kenma?” Bokuto asks, earning an excited nod from Tetsurou. “I’ll teach you when we get back home.”

     Bokuto returns his eyes to his phone, and then comes to a sudden halt. He feels the pull of his son’s hand in his as Tetsurou absently keeps walking, and then bounces back to his side.

     “We’re here,” Bokuto announces, examining the building before him.

     The small, beige-colored place looks like a bakery, and a quick glance at the big wooden sign on top of it that reads “Rufous Bakery” is enough to confirm that suspicion. The glass doors are closed, but the tiny sign that hangs from one of them announces that the place is open.

     Bokuto pushes the door open, and waits until Tetsurou is inside to step in behind him. He stands there and examines the place. The walls are painted with wide, pastel pink and beige vertical stripes that give the place a cozy, yet stylish feeling. There are a couple of wooden tables and chairs on one side of the store, covered with cream-colored tablecloths, and a big blackboard behind and over the counter, adorned with flowers and tiny owls, announcing the names and prices of the products. Behind the shiny glass panels of the counter, all sort of colorful, delicious-looking sweets are exhibited in all their glory, immediately calling Tetsurou’s undivided attention.

     “Papa, look at all that food!” he exclaims, letting go of Bokuto’s hand to take a closer look at the breads, cakes, and desserts.

     “Welcome!” the tiny, cheerful-looking dependant greets them with a smile, looking all sorts of adorable in his beige apron and tiny pink hat.

     “Hey,” Bokuto greets back, approaching the counter. “I’m here to pick something up for Sugawara Koushi?”

     “Just a moment, please,” the dependant says, before turning his head towards a doorway that Bokuto assumes leads to the kitchen. “Akaashi-san!”

     “Akaashi-san?” Bokuto repeats to himself. _“There’s no way it’s him.”_

     But it’s definitely Akaashi’s face that pops out from the doorway, immediately mirroring Bokuto’s look of surprise when he spots them standing there in the middle of the store.

     “Bokuto-san?”

     “Akaashi! I didn’t know this was your place!” Bokuto says, his surprised expression giving way to a pleased smile. “Suga asked me to pick something up for him, I had no idea he would send me here!”

     Before Akaashi can answer, he feels a tiny hand tugging at his apron. He looks down to find Tetsurou’s wide eyes looking up at him, under his ever-unruly black hair.

     “Is Kenma here?” he asks hopefully.

     “He’s at his grandmother’s house for the day,” Akaashi answers with one of his gentle smiles, trying to sound as kind as possible, but Tetsurou still visibly deflates with disappointment.

     “You’ve got a really nice place,” Bokuto comments, earning Akaashi’s attention back. He looks around the bakery one more time with his hands on his hips, humming appreciatively at the details he hadn’t noticed before, like the tiny succulents that line the space between the cash register and the tip jar, and the fancy coffee machine resting on a shelved fitment over dozens of tiny white cups and plates, perfectly lined on the shelves. “I love the walls!”

     “Thank you. Kenma was the one to pick the colors when we remodeled, actually,” Akaashi explains, his face easily falling into a smile after Bokuto’s compliment.

     “See, papa? Kenma is _super_ cool!” Tetsurou chirps, tugging at Bokuto’s shirt this time.

     “Yeah, he’s even cooler than you!” Bokuto exclaims, eagerly expecting his son’s reaction to his knowingly-evil remark.

     Tetsurou looks more conflicted than ever at his father’s statement, eyebrows furrowed and lips pursed in an attempt to stop his primal instinct of defending his superior coolness in favor of his appreciation for his friend.

     Bokuto can’t hold in his laughter anymore after a few moments, and his evident amusement earns him an offended glare from his son.

     “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Bokuto apologizes, ruffling Tetsurou’s hair affectionately. “You’re both the coolest.”

     That seems to soothe Tetsurou, who allows Bokuto’s hand on his hair, but still makes an effort to look deeply offended at the implication that his dad would ever think someone could be cooler than him. Yaku and Akaashi chuckle and exchange amused glances at the adorable picture unfolding before them, before Akaashi lets Yaku know that Suga’s order is written on a small post-it behind the computer screen, and that it’s already been paid for.

     Yaku expertly places the order in a large cake box, and then hands it to Bokuto with a serviceable smile.

     “Can I help you with anything else?” he asks, and Bokuto nods before looking down at his son.

     “Are you hungry, buddy?” Tetsurou thinks it over for a moment, and then nods after deciding that he is, like his dad, always hungry. “Pick something, I’ll buy it for you.”

     “Anything I want!?” Tetsurou asks, eyes shining at the prospect of getting to eat one of the fluffy, soft-looking cakes that shine behind the counter.

     “Anything you want!” Bokuto grins brightly at him. “And pick something for me as well; we’ll share it!”

     They walk out of the bakery a couple minutes later, Bokuto holding the box that holds Suga’s order, and Tetsurou carrying the smaller one that holds his father’s cream puffs, and his piece of strawberry shortcake. They both practically bounce down the street, pleased smiles on their faces, although for entirely different reasons: while Tetsurou is excited to try the sweets they bought, Bokuto is entirely content at the fact that he now knows where he can visit Akaashi anytime he wants.

~•~

     Suga stops stirring the sauce, and carefully places the lid on the pot. He hums appreciatively at the delicious smell that comes out of it, before the sound of his phone receiving two consecutive texts catches his ear. He walks into the living room, and stops momentarily at the doorway to appreciate the sight of Daichi sleeping on the couch, with an also sleeping Tobio lying on his broad chest. He gently sits down down next to them in the narrow space between his husband’s head and the arm of the couch, and then reaches out to grab his cell phone from the coffee table, leaning back on the couch to read the texts.

     The first one is from Akaashi, sent at 11:23 a.m.:

     _“I’m pretty sure you did that on purpose, and I’m not sure if I should thank you.”_

     Suga chuckles quietly, and then goes to read the second one, coming, quite predictably, from Bokuto, also sent at 11:23 a.m.:

_“Suga ur the best wingman ever <3”_

     The sound of his giggles makes Tobio stir on top of Daichi’s chest, and Suga immediately reaches out to caress his hair. Tobio sighs softly, and immediately falls back into the deepest of slumbers under his father’s soft touch. Daichi, on the other hand, doesn’t move an inch when his husband reaches out to brush his hair from his forehead. Suga smiles fondly at them, and then returns his attention to the phone to answer Bokuto’s text.

     _“You better not touch my order, soulmate boy. There better not be a single crumb missing!”_

     And then, after a moment of consideration, he sends a response to Akaashi as well.

     _“You and I both know that you should thank me ;)”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! You might have noticed that I posted this chapter a couple days ago, but I deleted it to make some minor changes. So here it is again!
> 
> I'd like to thank the lovely miss-macabre-grey, for being a fantastic beta and an amazing friend ♥♥♥
> 
> Your feedback means the world to me, and it's the thing that keeps me writing. So please leave me a comment to let me know what you thought of this chapter, what you would like to read in following chapters, or just to tell me anything you want, because I love getting comments from my readers. It would really, really mean a lot to me ♥
> 
> Come talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr!


	3. Chapter 3

     Akaashi awakens to the sound of his bedroom door opening slowly. He cracks one eye open to find Kenma standing on the doorway, still clad in his pajamas. Then he glances at the clock on his nightstand, and it blinks a red-colored 5:37 AM back at him.

     “What’s wrong, Kenma?” Akaashi asks sleepily, raising his head from the pillow.

     “I had a bad dream,” Kenma mumbles, trying to fight back a gigantic pout that threatens to take over his entire face.

     Akaashi smiles comfortingly at him, sitting up on the bed. He throws the covers back and pats the empty spot on the mattress next to him.

     “Come here, kitty-cat.”

     Kenma doesn’t even hesitate before padding inside the bedroom and climbing on the bed. Akaashi gently places the covers over the both of them and then lies back down, with Kenma instantly snuggling up against him. Akaashi wraps his arms around his tiny frame to hold him against his chest. He presses a gentle kiss on the top of his head, allowing himself to enjoy this moment of unusual clinginess from his son.

     “Do you want to talk about it?” Akaashi asks, playing with the strands of hair on Kenma’s nape. He feels Kenma shaking his head against his chest, clutching to his t-shirt with his tiny hands. Akaashi goes back to caressing his head in a reassuring gesture until he feels Kenma’s grip soften. “That’s fine, you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”

     Akaashi closes his eyes, planning to go back to sleep until his alarm clock wakes them both up. But Kenma’s tiny voice, barely whispered against the fabric of his t-shirt a few moments later, lets him know that his son has other plans.

     “In my dream, you didn’t love me anymore.”

     That makes Akaashi’s eyes fly open immediately, and he looks down at the boy in his arms with a small frown. Kenma’s face is pressed against his shirt, but Akaashi can easily imagine the face his son is making just by hearing how shaky his voice is.

     “Kenma, you know that’s impossible, right?” Akaashi starts softly, carefully picking his words. “I would never, ever stop loving you.”

     Kenma finally looks up at him, struggling to blink away the tears that make his big yellow eyes shine with uncertainness. It makes Akaashi want to squeeze him in his arms and never let him go again, if only to convince him that there’s nothing in the world he can love more than him.

     “Never, ever?” Kenma mumbles, still looking worried. Akaashi gives him a sweet smile, and then gently wipes a few stray tears off his face.

     “Never, ever,” he assures him.

     Kenma sniffles a couple times, and then nods before going back to hiding his face against his father’s chest. Akaashi watches him fondly for a moment, before tightening his hold on his son’s tiny body, and closing his eyes again. It isn’t long until they’re both lulled into sleep by the sound of each other’s soft breathing, and the gentle warmth they share under the covers.

~•~

     Tetsurou practically bounces on his seat on the way to preschool, with his recently fabricated paper boat sitting on his lap. Bokuto keeps glancing at his reflection on the rearview mirror, smiling to himself every time he catches sight of his son’s evident excitement.

     Kenma is already there when they arrive, sitting on the front steps next to Akaashi, clearly waiting for Tetsurou. Once Bokuto gets out of the car and opens the backseat door, Tetsurou speeds past him towards his friend, barely remembering to take his backpack with him.

     “Kenma, look!” he exclaims, proudly showcasing his paper boat with a toothy smile. “My papa taught me how to make it!”

     “Cool,” is Kenma’s simple appreciation, but his eyes still shine with admiration as he examines the expertly folded piece of paper. “Did you make it?”

     “Yeah! I’ll teach you how to do it,” Tetsurou says, just as Bokuto catches up to him. “We can have some wicked races!”

     “Good morning, Akaashi, Kenma!” Bokuto greets them cheerfully, placing a hand on Tetsurou’s head.

     “Good morning, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi says, standing up with a polite smile. Kenma gives him a shy nod, to which Bokuto responds with a grin. “Kenma wanted to wait for Tetsurou-kun. Apparently, he was really excited about his ‘super cool, ultra wicked paper boat’.”

     Bokuto responds to Akaashi’s amused comment with a hearty laugh, before turning to his son and ruffling his hair.

     “You two should go inside, it’s almost time for class,” he says, earning a nod from both Tetsurou and Kenma.

     “Bye, papa, bye, Mr. Pretty!” Tetsurou chirps, before grabbing Kenma’s hand to head inside together.

     “Bye-bye,” Kenma says shyly as he follows his friend inside without letting go of his hand.

     “So I’m still ‘Mr. Pretty’, huh?” Akaashi notices with a sigh, but an amused smile still finds its way into his face while he watches the kids disappear inside.

     “Yeah, sorry about that,” Bokuto says with another genuine laugh, scratching the back of his head. With his eyes fixed on the spot where the kids had been a few minutes ago, he misses the warm, relaxed smile Akaashi is giving him, lips barely raised, and eyes twinkling a little. But when Bokuto turns around to face him the smile is gone. “Well, I should get going. I don’t wanna be late for work. See ya!”

     Bokuto gives him a small wave before turning to leave. Akaashi watches him descend the steps, headed towards his car, and his stomach churns with an uncomfortable sensation. As he searches for something to say that will earn the man’s attention, Akaashi suddenly realizes the cause of the weird feeling at the pit of his stomach: he doesn’t want Bokuto to leave.

     “Where do you work, Bokuto-san?” he blurts out before he can stop himself. He absent-mindedly extends one hand towards the man’s retreating back as if to stop him from leaving, but then drops it as soon as he realizes his unintentional gesture. Akaashi can feel his cheeks heating up a little when Bokuto turns around, but he does his best to ignore it. Bokuto stares at Akaashi for a moment, surprised at the sudden question, and then smiles one more time.

     “I’m a high-school gym teacher,” he explains. He gestures at his gym clothes with a smile, and Akaashi hums with a slow nod.

     _“That explains the constant tracksuits_ , _”_ he thinks.

     “Yeah, Nekoma high school, ever heard of it?” Bokuto continues, and Akaashi nods. Bokuto eagerly walks up the steps to stand in front of Akaashi again, seemingly forgetting all about his previous rush to leave to work. “I also coach their volleyball team. Their team and mine were rivals back when I was in high school. I never expected I’d end up being their coach!”

     “And how long have you been working there?” Akaashi asks, eager to keep the conversation going.

     “I started this school year, actually. I used to work from home to take care of Tetsu when he was younger, but then I found this job, and it was too good not to take it.”

     “And that’s why you decided to bring Tetsurou-kun here?” Akaashi gestures his head towards the preschool building behind him, where shrill children voices and loud laughter have been echoing for a while now.

     “Exactly!” Bokuto’s smile widens even more, and Akaashi can’t stop a smile of his own at his interlocutor’s cheeriness. “Why did you decide to bring Kenma?”

     “Well, I noticed he didn’t have any good friends besides Shouyou, so I figured it’d be healthy for Kenma to have more friends his age,” Akaashi explains, looking into the preschool with a thoughtful expression. Then he turns back to Bokuto, and smiles. “And it was a good decision, since we got to meet the two of you.”

     Bokuto’s eyes widen slightly at his words, and it isn’t until Akaashi notices that he’s blushing to the roots of his hair, that he realizes the implications of what he just said.

      “Oh, I didn’t mean it like that!” he rushes to explain, frantically waving his hands in front of his chest. “I meant that… I’m glad Kenma could find a good friend!” Akaashi stammers for a moment when he realizes that he just screwed up again, and scrambles to explain himself one more time. “I mean, it’s not like meeting you was a bad thing, Bokuto-san, not at all, it’s just that I mean… I was trying to say that-”

      “I’m really glad to have met you too!” Bokuto exclaims all of sudden, effectively putting an end to Akaashi’s rambling. Akaashi blinks a couple times, surprised at the other’s sudden outburst. After a few moments of silence, Bokuto is still red in the face, but he locks his gaze with Akaashi’s, and dares a smile in his direction. “I really am.”

     A few silent seconds pass before Bokuto nods effusively once as a farewell, and then rigidly turns around to make his way to his car with unnecessarily long steps.

     Akaashi watches him get into his car and drive away, still in shock. It isn’t until Bokuto has disappeared down the street that the meaning of Bokuto’s words catches up to him, making his cheeks heat up like never before. Akaashi covers his face with his hands and whines loudly, earning concerned looks from a couple of passerby's.

~•~

     Bokuto parks his car in his usual spot, eyes fixed on the entrance a couple meters ahead of him. His hands are still grabbing the steering wheel as several students walk by past his car, talking and laughing loudly while they make their way into the school. After a while of silently staring ahead, Bokuto suddenly slams his forehead against the steering wheel, letting out a loud, drawn-out groan.

     “Oh, god, that was so embarrassing, I can never see Akaashi again now,” he mumbles to himself. “Good job, Koutarou, you got mad game, pal, you’re really such a charm-”

     Bokuto interrupts himself to let out a high-pitched squeak when his phone starts ringing inside his pocket. He fumbles to take it out and answer the call, without even bothering to check who the caller is.

     “Hello?”

     “Listen, soulmate-boy, Akaashi just called me, and he’s _freaking_ out. What did you do?”

     “Suga!” Bokuto whines into the receiver, dropping his head back against the steering wheel. “I think I effed up.”

     “What did you do?” Suga repeats his question, now beginning to sound exasperated.

     “I just… I told Akaashi out of nowhere that I was really glad to meet him.”

     Suga’s side of the line is silent for a while. Bokuto is about to check if the call has accidentally been ended, when his friend finally speaks up again.

     “Is that it?” Suga asks disbelievingly. “Is that why you’re both so freaked out?”

     “It was out of nowhere, Suga!” Bokuto defends, straightening up on his seat. “We weren’t even talking about that! I mean, we kind of were, but still…” he trails off, sliding down on his seat until his chin is resting on his chest.

     Suga sighs audibly, and Bokuto can picture him shaking his head into his hand like he often does when he hears something dumb. Which is, in poor Suga’s defense, quite often.

     “Seriously, you’re both in your thirties, and you’re acting like dumb teenagers with a crush.”

     “Early thirties, thank you very much,” Bokuto grumbles. Heaving a sigh, he opens his car door and gets out into the parking lot. “So it’s not that bad? I didn’t eff up too badly?”

     “Of course you didn’t!” Suga reassures him while Bokuto grabs his bag from the backseat of his car. “There’s nothing wrong with what you said. It was a good thing to say, actually.”

     “But you said Akaashi was freaking out!”

     “Yeah, but it was a good kind of freaking out.”

     “Really?” Bokuto asks, perking up a little at his friend’s words.

     “I think he likes you, soulmate-boy,” Suga says in a teasing voice, and Bokuto can feel a slight blush spreading across his cheeks at his words.

     “O-of course he doesn’t, why would he like someone like me?” Bokuto wordlessly greets back a couple of his students as he enters the school building, giving then big smiles and cheery waves.

     “Why wouldn’t he? Besides, I thought you said you two were soul mates.”

     “Well, maybe we’re star-crossed lovers or something. He’s the unfairly pretty baker, and I’m the one who sparks a revolution!” Bokuto jokes, letting out a melancholic sigh. “Tragic, but still romantic.”

     “Okay, Katniss, I gotta go.” Bokuto can practically hear the eye-roll in Suga’s voice. But then his voice acquires a serious tone, the one Suga uses when he wants someone to believe and understand what he’s saying. It’s usually reserved for Tobio, but Bokuto has been on the receiving end of it quite a lot of times. “But I meant it, Bo. I really think Akaashi likes you.”

     “How can you know that?” Bokuto asks, making his way through the crowded hallways on his way to the teacher’s lounge.

     “Believe me, us pretty boys understand each other,” Suga says teasingly, his voice tinted with an almost tangible smirk. “Bye-bye!”

     “You’re thirty-three, Suga, you’re not a boy anymore!” Bokuto exclaims into the receiver. But Suga has already hung up, leaving him in the hallway with a deep blush on his face, and at least twice as flustered as he was a few minutes ago in the parking lot.

     He puts his phone away and stomps his way to the teacher’s lounge, mumbling all sort of semi-angered stuff against “thirty-three year-old pretty boys.”

~•~

     The tiny bell attached to the front door rings across the bakery, announcing the entrance of a costumer. Akaashi looks up from where he’s revising old bills with Yaku, and his face instantly falls into a smile when he sees who has just walked in.

     “Good afternoon, Sugawara-san.”

     “I already told you to call me ‘Suga’. Even Yaku-kun calls me ‘Suga’. You’re the only one who doesn’t!” Suga complains as he approaches the counter. He leans on it on his forearms, and takes a deep breath, letting a content smile spread across his lips. “Your place always smells so good!”

     “Suga-san, guess what we have in the oven,” Yaku says, and Suga’s eyes immediately widen with delight.

     “Strawberry rolls with lemon glaze?” he whispers, and then nearly squeals when Yaku nods his head. “Oh, my god, get a box ready, because I’ll take them all.”

     “I put 16 of them in the oven, Suga-” Akaashi begins, but then stops talking when Suga whips his head to stare at him with a scary look on his face.

     “I’ll take them all,” he reiterates, eyes terrifyingly wide. “You think Daichi, Tobio, and I won’t eat them all? Because we will, Akaashi. We will.”

     “Alright, alright, I believe you,” Akaashi says, raising his hands above his head in a mock-surrender gesture. Yaku lets out a chuckle at the exchange, and then crouches behind the counter to look for a box, disappearing from Suga’s sight. “So, I’m pretty sure you didn’t come here for my strawberry rolls,” Akaashi comments, leaning against the counter to be face to face with Suga.

     “I always come here for your strawberry rolls,” Suga retorts, imitating Akaashi’s slightly teasing tone of voice.

     “And the strawberry shortcake!” Yaku chimes in, his voice coming slightly muffled from inside a cabinet.

     “ _And_ the strawberry shortcake,” Suga concedes with a slow nod. Then, he returns his attention to Akaashi, giving him a grin that’s definitely too big for Akaashi to think it’s anything other than mocking. “But I’m also here to make fun of your teenage boy crush.”

     Akaashi rolls his eyes and disappears into the kitchen, frankly unsurprised by Suga’s choice of subject.

     “I’m not a teenage boy,” he calls out to him, opening the oven to retrieve the strawberry rolls.

     “You didn’t deny the crush part!”

     Akaashi slams the baking pan on the kitchen counter, and then turns towards the doorway with another eye-roll.

     “And I _don’t_ have a crush!”

     “Too late!” Suga answers. Akaashi takes off his oven mittens and heads back to the front, wearing a highly un-amused expression on his face. Suga gives him one of his trademark teasing smiles, holding his head in his hand, and placing his elbow on the counter. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret.”

     “There’s no secret to be kept, Suga-”

     “Eh, eh, eh, cut it short right there!” Suga exclaims, holding up his hand in front of Akaashi’s face.

     “-san,” Akaashi finishes, crossing his eyes to look at Suga’s hand. Suga grins triumphantly at him, and places his hands on his hips.

     “That’s better than ‘Sugawara’, I guess.” He leans back against the counter, placing his face menacingly close to Akaashi’s. “Now back to your crush.”

     “I’m gonna go glaze your rolls,” Akaashi announces, turning around on the heel of his shoes to head back into the kitchen, and away from Suga’s choice of conversation topic.

     “I’m only letting you go because of my love for your rolls!” Suga shouts once Akaashi is inside the kitchen.

     He allows himself a small chuckle at his friend’s antics, before beginning to rummage around his carefully organized cabinets and drawers in search of the things he needs to make the glaze. Just as he’s about to finish it, Suga’s voice finds its way into the kitchen.

     “Akaashi?”

     “Yes, Suga-san?” Akaashi answers, barely remembering just in time not to use Suga’s full family name.

     “Can you put some pink coloring in the glaze? Tobio loves it when the glaze is pink.”

     “Of course,” Akaashi says with a smile, reaching into a nearby cabinet to grab the food coloring. “Anything for Tobio-kun,” he finishes, earning a sweet laugh from Suga.

     Akaashi goes back to the front, pan of rolls in hand, just as the bell announces a new costumer entering the bakery. He places the pan in the counter and looks up to greet the costumer, polite smile fixed in place.

     “Welco- Bokuto-san!?” he exclaims with surprise when his eyes land on a familiar head of strange-colored hair.

     “Hey, Akaashi,” Bokuto greets him shyly, lacking his usual loudness and excitement. His eyes land on Suga, and they exchange pleasantly surprised expressions. “Oh, hey Suga.”

     “Hey, there, soulmate-boy!”

     “’Soulmate-boy?’” Akaashi mumbles to himself, frowning slightly at the weird nickname. His attention immediately jumps back to Bokuto when he sees him gingerly approach the counter. Akaashi’s lips instinctively curve into the polite smile he uses for his costumers, doing his best to keep his mind away from their embarrassing encounter that morning. “What can I help you with, Bokuto-san?”

     “I promised Tetsu I would buy him some cream puffs today. He really loved them,” Bokuto says, scratching the back of his head with his eyes fixed on the blackboard behind the counter. He finally meets Akaashi’s gaze, yellow eyes shining with an uncertainness Akaashi has never seen in them before. “I loved them, too; they’re amazing.”

     Akaashi opens his mouth to answer, but he’s cut off by Suga’s cheery voice.

     “Everything Akaashi bakes is amazing!” he says, swinging his arm around Bokuto’s shoulders. “You should try the strawberry rolls!”

     “But not today, because Suga-san is taking them all,” Yaku jokes as he places the rolls inside a big cake box.

     “Yeah, sorry about that,” Suga apologizes, but there is absolutely no regret in his voice. He turns to look at Akaashi to acknowledge them both before he speaks up again. “So, I was thinking, since our last play date was such a success, we should have another one! And we could go to a more exciting place.”

     “That’d be nice,” Bokuto agrees, eyes darting between Suga and Akaashi. “But we should keep Shouyou away from swing sets,” he jokes.

     “Oh, well, I was thinking about going to an amusement park, but…” Suga trails off when he notices both Bokuto and Akaashi slowly wincing, probably imagining everything that could go wrong with taking four little kids to a place filled with roller coasters. Suga winces himself when he remembers Tobio’s last crisis about Shouyou’s small accident, and decides he definitely doesn’t want to go through that again. “Yeah, maybe in a couple years.”

     “What about taking them to an arcade?” Akaashi suggests. Suga and Bokuto turn to look at him, and then back at each other in perfect unison, before returning their gazes to Akaashi. “I mean, Kenma likes those places a lot, so I thought it’d be nice, but…”

     “I think it’s a great idea!” Bokuto rushes to reassure him. “I mean, kids love those places, right?”

     “Yeah, I like that idea,” Suga agrees with an enthusiastic nod. “I’ll call Yamaguchi later and ask him what he thinks.”

     “Here you go, Suga-san,” Yaku says, pushing the roll-filled box towards Suga with a big smile.

     “Aw, hell yeah.” Suga nearly vibrates with excitement as he grabs the box from the counter, and holds it against his chest. “I’ll be going, then. I got a very important date with Akaashi’s lemon glaze.”

     With that, he’s heading out the door, responding to the other three’s farewells with a sweet smile from over his shoulder. The three of them are silent for a moment after Suga leaves, until Yaku announces that he’ll go check the kitchen for something that neither Bokuto nor Akaashi pay attention to, attention focused on avoiding each other’s gazes.

     “So, cream puffs?” Akaashi asks once his employee is gone, and Bokuto nods in response. “How many?”

     “Uh, six,” Bokuto answers after a momentary calculation.

     They don’t speak while Akaashi grabs a small box, and carefully places the cream puffs inside with a pair of tweezers. Bokuto’s eyes roam around the bakery, as he tries his best not to stare at Akaashi when he fixes his hair behind his ear, of bites his lower lip as he counts the cream puffs inside the box.

     _“Damn it, he’s so cute,”_ Bokuto thinks after the fifth time his eyes slip towards Akaashi and his unconsciously attractive gestures.

     “Bokuto-san.”

     “Ah, yes!” Bokuto squeaks. The sudden sternness in Akaashi’s voice makes him fear that he has caught him staring, but when he turns to look at him, he finds nothing but an unexpected worry in his delicate features. “What’s wrong?”

     “It’s just that…” Akaashi fiddles with the hem of his apron, and coyly looks away before meeting his gaze from under lowered eyelashes. It makes Bokuto wonder if the man is making a conscious effort to be breath-taking, or if he just doesn’t realize how pretty he looks when he does that sort of thing. “You’ve been acting weird since you came in, and I was wondering if I did something wrong?”

     Bokuto lips fall open at the unexpected question. He promptly closes them when he notices the slight blush that dusts Akaashi’s cheeks as he keeps messing with his apron in order to avoid looking at him.

     _“Suga was right,”_ Bokuto thinks with a silent sigh. _“We_ are _acting like teenagers.”_

     “I’m… a little embarrassed over what I said earlier today,” Bokuto confesses. Akaashi bites his lip, still not looking up at him.

     “So that means-”

     “That doesn’t mean I didn’t mean it,” Bokuto cuts him off. Akaashi finally returns his gaze to Bokuto’s eyes, surprised at the newfound determination he hears in his voice, and sees in his expression. Bokuto’s face softens into a smile, a genuine one this time, the kind of smile that Akaashi likes the most on the man’s face. “Because I did. I really I’m glad that I got to meet you, Akaashi.”

     Akaashi does his best to hold Bokuto’s intense glance, but he has to look away when he starts to feel his face flushing. It’s probably not on purpose, and he knows it, but Bokuto always seems to find the way to destroy Akaashi’s usual confidence and demureness with nothing but a couple words, or a well-timed smile. It’s frustrating, really, but it also makes his chest feel warm in a way it hasn’t in years. Every time it happens, Akaashi can only hope that he gets to have the same effect on this weird man, with his weird hair, and his big, owlish eyes.

     And maybe that’s why he finds himself smiling bashfully a few seconds later, and giving him the only answer he can come up with.

     “I’m glad to have met you too, Bokuto-san.”

~•~

     Once Bokuto leaves, and Yaku emerges from the kitchen, he can’t help but to notice that his boss is suddenly unusually cheery, humming and smiling all over the place.

      _“I should ask Bokuto-san to come by more often,”_   he thinks as he wipes the counter with a rag, hearing Akaashi singing from the kitchen as he makes some bread.

~•~

     After leaving his shoes at the entrance, Bokuto follows his son into the living room. Tetsurou has been rambling non-stop about his paper boat races, his new gym teacher Ukai-sensei, who is apparently super-duper cool, and every Kenma-related thing he can remember since he got in the car when Bokuto picked him up from school. So when he suddenly stops talking, Bokuto knows for a fact that Tetsurou has found the box of cream puffs on the living room table.

     He is already stuffing his face when Bokuto gets there, and he offers nothing but a cheeky smile when his father jokingly berates him for starting without him. He has cream on the tip of his nose, and he looks so adorable that it throws Bokuto into a long mental debate with himself about whether or not to wipe it off.

     He is just about to decide against it, when Tetsurou’s voice calls him back to earth.

     “Papa, who is gonna eat the extra one?”

     “The extra one?” Bokuto asks, tilting his head in confusion.

     “Yeah, you brought seven.”

     Bokuto grabs the box to count the cream puffs. There’s six inside the box, and another one, half-eaten, in Tetsurou’s hand, making seven in total. His eyebrows knit together as he tries to remember whether or not he accidentally asked for seven cream puffs instead of six, but then his face relaxes into a smile when he reaches a different conclusion.

     “It’s a gift from Mr. Pretty,” he says, setting the box back on the table.

     “Mr. Pretty _rocks!_ ” Tetsurou exclaims, so effusively, that the cream ends up falling from his nose and into his shirt, much to Bokuto’s amusement.

~•~

     The visit to the arcade ends up being equal parts fun for the kids, and exhausting for their parents. After hours of running behind their four overly-excited children (even Kenma’s usual shyness succumbs to the charms of the arcade machines), the six of them wish for nothing more than to leave that loud, neon lights-filled place. At least they are able to avoid any incidents, unless they count Daichi being accidentally smacked in the nose by his son while they play at the whack-a-mole machine together.

     “I’m sorry, this seemed like a good idea in theory,” Akaashi apologizes once they manage to get all the kids out of the seemingly endless ball pit.

     “I think buying them cotton candy was a mistake,” Yamaguchi comments as he watches Shouyou jump around a very tired Tsukishima.

     They are finally able to convince the kids to head back home, but only after promising to let them play one more game.

     The kids, of course, pick the _god damned_ claw machine.

     It takes a lot of failed attempts by the boys (who can’t even reach the controls unless their parents are holding them up), and a couple of humiliating losses from both Daichi and Bokuto until Yamaguchi starts to beg Tsukishima to _get the kids a stupid plushie so we can go home_.

     “Is Tsukishima any good at those things?” Bokuto asks, watching as Tsukishima inserts a coin into the claw machine after cracking all of his fingers one by one.

     “Tsukki used to get me things from those machines all the time when we started dating,” Yamaguchi tells the group, watching proudly as his husband fiddles with the controls.

     “Shut up, Tadashi,” Tsukishima mumbles, clearly embarrassed at Yamaguchi’s anecdote. His eyes are fixed on the claw as he works the lever, and then punches the large red button just above an orange cat plushie. The claw closes around it, and both kids and adults lean in with hopeful interest to watch as Tsukishima expertly guides the claw back to let it drop his price into the hole.

     Everyone cheers when Tsukishima retrieves the stuffed animal and shows it to them with in a mock-victorious gesture. He stares at it for a moment before handing it to Kenma, who shyly takes it and holds it against his chest. Tsukishima immediately turns back around to insert another coin into the machine, and keep working his magic.

     He ends up retrieving another cat for Tetsurou, and a bunny for Tobio. He nearly cries when Shouyou requests the ugly rat plushie _(“You don’t want that bear? I’ll get you that bear, Shouyou, please!”)_ , but ends up getting it for him after three unsuccessful tries.

     “Thanks, father!” Shouyou chirps at Tsukishima’s side, holding his new stuffed rat against his chest like it is anything other than completely terrifying. More than a couple eyebrows rise at the weirdly formal treatment that Tsukishima receives from his son.

     “I told you to stop calling me that,” Tsukishima complains with a sigh. “Just call me dad.”

     “But _dad_ is dad!” Shouyou refutes, pointing at Yamaguchi. “You can’t both be dad!”

     “I’m sorry, Tsukki, _I’m_ dad,” Yamaguchi teases his husband, getting a resentful glare in return.

     “Alright, then call me something else, but not ‘father’. Call me something cute,” Tsukishima says, returning his attention to his son. He crouches down in front of Shouyou to be face to face with him, and smiles fondly at him (a gesture reserved only for Shouyou and Yamaguchi). The boy returns his father’s smile with added brightness.

     “Then I’ll call you Tall Dad!”

     “What? No!” Tsukishima exclaims with desperation.

     The other dads burst out laughing in unison, and Tsukishima glares at them with a mixture of embarrassment and misery in his eyes.

     “Oh, man!” Bokuto wipes a tear from his eye, shaking his head in disbelief. “Your kid is golden, Tsukki!”

     “I told you to stop calling me that,” Tsukishima complains, standing up to glare at him.

     “Don’t worry, Tsukishima,” Daichi says, clasping him on the shoulder. “Now we can call you Tall Dad.”

     Yamaguchi is the first one to snort, and then everyone else joins him with loud, thunderous laughter.

     “I hate you all,” Tsukishima deadpans, looking like he is deciding on the most painful way to kill them. He feels a small tug on his pant leg, and looks down to find Shouyou looking up at him with badly-concealed sadness shining in his big round eyes.

     “Do you hate me too, Tall Dad?”

     “Of course not, dumbo.” Tsukishima reaches down to ruffle his son’s hair, allowing himself a tiny smile. “You’re my favorite thing in the world.”

     His words put a gigantic grin on Shouyou’s face, and it quickly becomes a mischievous one.

     “I’m gonna tell dad you said that.”

     “That’s some weird Oedipus complex you got going on there, pal,” Tsukishima says, raising one eyebrow at his son’s threat.

     “Tsukki!” Yamaguchi hisses, slapping him softly on the shoulder. “Don’t teach him weird things!”

~•~

     Tetsurou ends up bringing his new stuffed friend, Señor Gato (and Bokuto _definitely_ had nothing to do with that name, not at all), to Akaashi’s bakery when they visit it the next day to buy bread for breakfast. Since it’s a Sunday, Kenma is there sitting behind the counter, and his eyes immediately light up when he spots his friend entering the store.

     “Kenma!” Tetsurou exclaims, running to his encounter in front of the counter. Bokuto and Akaashi exchange smiles of fondness at their kids’ excitement. “Look, I brought Señor Gato!”

     “Mine doesn’t have a name yet,” Kenma mumbles, looking at his own plushie in his hands.

     “How about Monsieur Chat?” Akaashi suggests, and then chuckles at the kids’ puzzled looks. “It’s French for Señor Gato.”

     “That’s _so_ cool!” Tetsurou exclaims with a wide smile, and Kenma nods in agreement.

     “I didn’t know you spoke French,” Bokuto comments, giving Akaashi a look of admiration. Akaashi shrugs in response, barely holding back a smile.

     “Just a little. A benefit from studying patisserie.”

     Tetsurou ends up playing with Kenma behind the counter while Akaashi readies Bokuto’s order. Once he has his bag of bread safely secured under his arm, Bokuto turns to call Tetsurou to leave, but Akaashi’s voice stops him.

     “Bokuto-san.”

     “Mmm?” Bokuto turns to him with interest, failing to notice how reddened the tips of Akaashi’s ears have become in the last few seconds.

     “Um, I was wondering,” Akaashi’s eyes dart back and fort between Bokuto’s face and his hands as he fiddles with the hem of his apron. He has found himself doing that a lot lately. He takes a deep, steadying breath, and then lets out a barely comprehensible string of words. “Iwaswonderingifyouwouldliketogoonadatewithme.”

     “A date?” Bokuto repeats the only fraction of the phrase he was able to understand clearly. “Sure, but let’s not take the kids to an arcade again, please.”

     “No, I meant a real date!” Akaashi corrects him, and his own words make him feel uncomfortably warm in the face. “Without the kids,” he adds, going back to messing with his apron.

     Bokuto is silent for a while, and Akaashi is beginning to panic about his lack of response, when Bokuto suddenly slams his hands on the counter, nearly startling him out of his skin.

     “Yes! I do want to go on a date!” Bokuto exclaims, and Akaashi finds some consolation in the fact that the other looks as flustered as he is feeling right now. “I definitely want to go on a date with you!”

     “Good!” Akaashi squeaks, and then clears his throat to regain a little bit of his composure. “I’ll call you later to arrange the details?”

     “Yeah, let’s definitely do that!” Bokuto responds, still not lowering his voice from his earlier affirmation.

     Akaashi nods frantically a couple times, and Bokuto mirrors his gesture before calling his son to head back home. He waits until Tetsurou is at his side, holding his hand, before giving Akaashi a shaky smile that the other clearly struggles to return. Then, he turns around and walks towards the door, hoping and praying that he doesn’t look as dumb and clumsy as he feels.

     As they leave the bakery, leaving behind a very flustered Akaashi, Bokuto can’t help but to think that maybe acting like a teenager isn’t that bad at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For multiple reasons, this chapter is unbeta'd, but I really wanted to post it today, so here it is. I'll come back later and fix it once my beta is able to check it, but if there are any big mistakes, please let me know and I'll fix it right away!
> 
> I want to thank you guys for your feedback. Your lovely comments make me very, very happy and inspire me to keep writing this story, so please keep them coming! •3•
> 
> I'm also at allen-walkers on Tumblr if you wanna come talk to me! :D


	4. Chapter 4

     Bokuto leans back to stare at his reflection in the bathroom mirror, appreciating his work with a thoughtful hum. His hair is perfectly parted at the middle, lifted on both directions with an outrageous amount of apple-scented hair wax. His hair has gotten a little long, resulting in his beloved hair-horns being a little taller than they used to be. But Bokuto still throws a winning smirk at the mirror, happy with the results of his nearly half-hour long hair-styling session.

     Just as he is dipping his fingers into the tube of hair wax to add the finishing touches, Tetsurou walks past the wide open bathroom door, and looks at him for a small moment before a wide grin splits his face in half.

     “Aw, yeah!” he exclaims, startling Bokuto more than a little. “Papa Owl is back!”

     Bokuto promptly returns his son’s bright smile, nodding his head with evident excitement.

     “Heck yeah, buddy! Do I look extremely dashing, or what?”

     Tetsurou nods effusively and gives him a double thumbs-up.

     “Papa Owl is the coolest papa!”

     “Does that mean I’m uncool with my hair down?” Bokuto asks, visibly deflating at his son’s comment. Tetsurou promptly shakes his head from side to side as fast as he can.

     “Papa is always, _always_ the coolest!”

    With his previous cheeriness returning to his face, Bokuto leans down to pick Tetsurou up, and plant a gigantic kiss on his cheek. Tetsurou giggles and throws his arms around his neck, careful not to ruin his father’s beloved hairdo.

     “So,” Bokuto starts, leaning back a little to stare at Tetsurou’s face while still holding him in his arms. “Do you think this will be enough to charm Akaashi?”

     “Mr. Pretty will love it, papa, I’m sure!”

~•~

     “Bokuto-san, what the hell happened to your hair?”

     Granted, getting those words as a greeting when picking up your date _can_ be a little disheartening, but Akaashi still thinks that the way Bokuto deflates, clutching to his chest like he has just been stabbed in the heart might be a _little_ bit exaggerated. Still, he hurries to try and cheer him up as best as he can, while his mind still tries to make sense of the disaster that is Bokuto’s hair.

     “I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Akaashi says, softly placing his hand on his shoulder. Bokuto looks up with wide eyes, and the miserable glance he gives him forces a regretful smile into Akaashi’s face. “I’m just not used to it. It’s kinda…”

     “Super cool?” Tetsurou exclaims, peeking his head from the backseat window of Bokuto’s car.

     Akaashi can’t stop himself from wincing a little, eyes darting back and fort between a visibly hurt Bokuto, and his very excited son.

     “Nah, you’re right. I haven’t worn my hair like this in a long time,” Bokuto says, touching his wax-hardened hair with a thoughtful look, and a sigh. “Maybe it’s just not my thing anymore.”

     Instead of telling Bokuto that he doesn’t think his extravagant hairdo has _ever_ been his thing, Akaashi just smiles as politely as he can, and invites the both of them in while he finishes getting Kenma’s things ready.

     They had arranged for Bokuto to pick Akaashi and Kenma up at their house, and then drop both of the kids at Suga and Daichi’s house, where they would have a sleepover with Shouyou and Tobio. Suga had immediately volunteered to take care of the kids so Bokuto and Akaashi could go out, more than happy to continue with his duties as The Best Wingman Ever™. Then, Bokuto would drive them to their date-place, which had remained a secret under his insistence. Akaashi had agreed to let him pick the place, secretly excited to find out which sort of establishment Bokuto would find most suitable for a date together.

     As they walk into the living room, they find Kenma sitting on the couch next to his bag, wiggling his dangling feet over the ground, and staring absently at the ceiling. He blinks at them with wide, yellow eyes, barely able to react before Tetsurou is running to jump on the couch next to him.

     “Kenma!” he greets him, throwing his arms around his shoulders in an affectionate hug. “I missed you!”

     “Hi, Tetsu,” is Kenma’s less effusive greeting, but he still smiles at Tetsurou, even with his arms flung around his neck, and that’s more than enough coming from him.

     “Oh, you already finished getting your stuff ready?” Akaashi asks with mild surprise. Kenma nods, and Akaashi softly pets his hair. “You’re such an efficient boy, kitty-cat!”

     Kenma doesn’t have time to complain about his dad’s nickname with Tetsurou loudly claiming his attention, but he still spares a tiny offended glare in his direction. It only succeeds in making Akaashi stifle an amused and fond giggle, but he decides that Kenma doesn’t have to know that.

~•~

     Akaashi isn’t willing to leave until Bokuto agrees to wash off the wax off his hair to wear it like he usually does. Still, he can’t help but to feel a little bad when Bokuto comes out of the bathroom with a defeated expression, and his hair dripping wet.

     “I’m sorry, Bokuto-san, I’m sure you must’ve spent a lot of time styling it…” he apologizes, rushing to grab a towel from the bathroom closet. He begins to gently dry Bokuto’s hair, ignoring both his and his date’s evident blush at their proximity while he runs the towel across Bokuto’s head. “Though I do have to admit, you look way more handsome with your hair down.”

     “Handsome?” Bokuto repeats, eyes instantly lighting up. Akaashi’s hands freeze, still holding the towel against Bokuto’s damp hair. “You think I’m handsome?”

     “W-well, yeah, you’re a-” Akaashi loudly clears his throat, lowering his head to try and hide the blush that is burning on his cheeks behind his bangs. He takes a step back, letting go of the towel. “You’re an attractive man,” he finally blurts out, refusing to look anywhere but the tips of his shoes, in fear that his head will implode out of sheer embarrassment. He clears his throat again, and turns around to head back into the living room. “Shall we go?”

     He doesn’t wait for Bokuto’s answer before walking away. If he wasn’t so utterly, completely ashamed, and was able to look at the other man’s face without the fear of internally combusting into flames, he would find the dumbest, most dazed grin on Bokuto’s face, all traces of his previous misery at his failed attempt at hair-styling complete gone.

     “He thinks I’m handsome,” Bokuto mumbles, watching as Akaashi, still refusing to look at him, gently urges Kenma and Tetsurou to the car.

     As he gets into his car, glancing momentarily at Akaashi’s still slightly flushed face, Bokuto gets the feeling that this night will most definitely be a good one.

~•~

     It isn’t until they leave the kids with Suga (who _very_ eagerly encourages them to _“have all the fun you can!”_ with a wink that can only be classified as highly un-innocent), and finally head to their top-secret date place, that Bokuto brings the topic back up as casually as he can.

     “You know, you’re very attractive too,” he says, trying his best not to sound as nervous as he feels. He glances at Akaashi, sitting on the passenger seat, and receives a wide-eyed, clearly surprised look in return. Bokuto returns his eyes to the road ahead, already internally berating himself for saying such a strange thing all of sudden.

     But Akaashi’s voice soon puts an end to his mental self-beating, to instantly throw his heart into what feels like an unhealthily accelerated pace.

     “Thanks, Bokuto-san,” he says softly, letting a shy smile tint his voice as he looks out the window to hide another prominent blush.

     “Like, very attractive. As in, you’re probably the most attractive person I’ve ever seen, and your face is like a gift from the gods,” Bokuto blurts out before he can stop himself. Akaashi’s eyes fly back to him, wide-open with surprise at the sudden confession. Bokuto stops his car at a red light, and slowly turns his head to look at him, only then realizing the words that came out of his mouth. Akaashi blinks silently at him as they both try to fight the crimson embarrassment that quickly spreads across their cheeks. Bokuto snaps his head to look forward again, his hands gripping the steering wheel with more force than necessary. “Ok, you know what? I’ll just… shut up and drive. Yeah.”

     “You don’t have to shut up!” Akaashi exclaims all of sudden, and it’s Bokuto’s turn to be surprised this time. Akaashi’s eyes are still wide when he looks at him, and his cheeks are still reddened, but he keeps talking nonetheless. “I like that you’re always so honest and open. I like how you blurt out things all of sudden. I even like it when you say dumb things, Bokuto-san!”

     “Akaashi…” is all that Bokuto can manage to mumble, nearly shocked into silence at Akaashi’s sudden outburst.

     “I like those things about you, Bokuto-san, and I like a lot of other things about you as well,” Akaashi continues, getting more and more worked out with each passing second. “That’s why I asked you on a date in the first place! So please… don’t shut up,” he finishes, his voice now barely a whisper.

     It takes Bokuto a while to find his voice again after that, long enough for the light to turn green, and for the drivers behind him to start angrily blaring their horns at him. He completely ignores them, struggling to find an appropriate answer. And when he does, it comes along with a dumb, unstoppable grin that slowly splits his face in two.

     “Ok. I won’t shut up, then.”

     Akaashi nods once, and then tears his gaze from Bokuto’s to stare out the window.

     “Now please don’t look at me in a while, because I’m pretty sure I am ridiculously red at the moment,” he says, and Bokuto has to stifle a chuckle at how adorably flustered he sounds.

     _“It’s nice to not be the embarrassed dumbass for once,”_ Bokuto thinks, finally shifting his car into gear to drive away.

~•~

     With Bokuto covering Akaashi’s eyes, they finally walk into their mysterious date place. The loud sound of pins being knocked out and crashing into wood greets them as soon as they enter the place. Bokuto retrieves his hands, and Akaashi blinks a couple times as he looks around, eyebrows slowly raising with pleasant surprise. He turns to look at Bokuto, who is already staring at him with an expectant smile.

     “A bowling alley?”

     “Yeah, I thought I’d be fun!” Bokuto says with a shrug. “But we can go somewhere else if you want!”

     “Oh, no, no, no!” Akaashi shakes his head and looks around the place one more time, letting a smile tug at the corner of his lips as he appreciates the shiny lights, slightly-corny neon signs and vintage-looking photographs that decorate the lounge. “I like bowling. It’s been years since I came to one of these places.”

     “Let’s go then!” Without a warning, Bokuto grabs his wrists and tugs on it. Akaashi lets him drag him to the counter, smile still secured on his face as he watches Bokuto politely talk to the receptionist. Once she leaves to bring their shoes, Bokuto turns to give him a smug smirk, leaning casually against the corner. “But let me warn you, Akaashi: I’m very good at bowling.”

     “Oh, really?” Akaashi asks, raising his eyebrows and leaning ever so slightly towards him.

     “I’ll probably kick your ass. You’ve been warned,” Bokuto teases.

     Akaashi closes the gap between them to whisper into his ear, not missing the way Bokuto’s eyes dart momentarily to his lips as he does.

     “We’ll see about that, Bokuto-san.”

     He leans back, taking a moment to appreciate the dumbfounded smile on Bokuto’s face before sauntering off towards the bowling lanes. He smirks to himself as he engraves the expression on his date’s face on his mind, and then nearly squeals with surprise when Bokuto suddenly catches up to him to press his bowling shoes into his hands.

     “It’s on, pretty boy,” he says with an intense look. Then, he winks at Akaashi before running off to find a table for the two of them, looking incredibly pleased with himself.

     “Pretty boy?” Akaashi mumbles to himself as he watches Bokuto go. He shakes his head, trying to dissipate the blush he can already feel taking over his cheeks at the off-handed compliment, before hurrying to make his way to his companion.

     For a man that’s so easy to read, Bokuto is definitely full of surprises, he thinks.

~•~

     As it turns out, Bokuto is the one that ends up getting his ass handed to him. Akaashi is surprisingly good at bowling, even with the evidently uncomfortable pants he is wearing. Bokuto is pretty sure that tight jeans are not the most appropriate attire for bowling, but that fact becomes unimportant as he watches Akaashi lean forward, and skillfully throw his ball towards the pins at the end of the lane.

 _“Don't stare at his ass, Koutarou, don’t stare at his ass_.”

     Akaashi straightens up to watch as his ball perfectly connects with the remaining three pins and knocks them out. He throws his fist in the air in celebration, and then turns around to give Bokuto a tantalizingly winning smile.

     “Your turn, Bokuto-san,” he says as he slides on his seat on the booth, still smiling at his previous victory.

     “I can’t believe you’re _actually_ kicking my ass like this,” Bokuto says, shaking his head in disbelief.

     “Why? I don’t look like someone who’s good at bowling?”

     “Well, no! I was planning on impressing you with my superior skills, and here I am getting destroyed by you!” Bokuto confesses.

     “And are you impressed?” Akaashi asks, placing his elbow on the table to rest his chin on his hand, and giving him and unabashedly mocking smirk.

     Bokuto’s lips part with an undignified sound at Akaashi’s unexpected teasing. Then he lets his face fall into a sweet smile as he decides that even if Akaashi is completely dominating him at bowling, Bokuto will _not_ let him be the main flirter of the night. _Not in a million years_.

     “Tell you what,” he begins, imitating Akaashi’s position and mirroring his smirk. “If I score a strike before this match ends, you’ll go on another date with me.”

     Akaashi drops the hand holding his face and leans back in surprise at Bokuto’s words. Bokuto holds his gaze until Akaashi smiles one more time, and resumes his earlier position, this time bringing his face a little bit closer to Bokuto’s.

     “Oh, my, Bokuto-san,” he almost purrs, his voice soft and enticing in a way that makes Bokuto’s heart skip a beat, and his breath get caught in his throat. “This date isn’t even over yet and you already want another one?”

     “Well, even if you’re kicking my ass, I'm still having a fantastic time.” Bokuto stops to appreciate the shy smile that Akaashi fails to contain before continuing, before resting his forearms on the table to lean towards him with a winning smile. “And something tells me you are, too.”

     “Then you already know you don’t need a strike to take me on a second date,” Akaashi retorts without missing a beat, the corners of his lips spreading farther apart on his face.

     “Akaashi, are you flirting with me?” Bokuto asks, narrowing his eyes. Akaashi smiles silently at him for a moment before leaning back on his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.

     “I’ll tell you if you score that strike.”

     Bokuto is up and heading towards their lane in the blink of an eye, and Akaashi watches with expectant eyes as he picks up his ball, and readies himself to throw it down the lane. Bokuto glances at him from over his shoulder, and then throws it with a calculated flick of his wrist. Neither him nor Akaashi move, both watching expectantly as the ball rolls towards the pins, and finally hits them, knocking almost all of them. Only one remains standing, swaying slightly from side to side.

     “Come on, come on…” Bokuto mumbles to himself, and Akaashi absently bites his lower lip with his eyes fixed on the pin. It finally stops wobbling, still standing on its own, and Akaashi lets out a relieved sigh. “Aw, come on!” Bokuto exclaims, slapping his own thighs in frustration.

     “Don’t worry, Bokuto-san!” Akaashi calls out from their booth, cupping his hands around his mouth so his voice reaches the other man over the loud music blaring from the speakers that hang over their heads. “You still have a couple of tries left!”

     Bokuto visibly perks up at Akaashi’s words, turning his head to give him a wide-eyed, owlish look before his face splits into a grin. Akaashi leans back to watch as Bokuto picks his ball back up, thinking, as his eyes trail down the taut muscles of his date’s arms, visible under his rolled-up sleeves, that he can’t decide whether he wants Bokuto to score a strike or not.

~•~

     “Aw, man!” Bokuto whines loudly, throwing his head back in frustration. “I can’t believe I couldn’t get a single strike!”

     Akaashi laughs softly, his breath puffing around his lips as they step out into the coldness of the night, hands buried deep into the pockets of their coats, and shoulders raised to shield their necks from the breeze.

     “But you did good, Bokuto-san! Not as good as me, but still good.”

     “You’re mean, you know that?” Bokuto mumbles, defeated, and Akaashi can’t help but to chuckle at his childish pout.

     “I think I know exactly how to cheer you up.”

     “Does it involve food? Because I’m really hungry right now,” Bokuto asks with a spark of hopefulness in his eyes that intensifies when Akaashi nods his head.

     “It does involve food.”

~•~

     Bokuto can’t help but to raise his eyebrows when Akaashi instructs him to stop the car in front of a tiny, poorly lit place that is barely anything else than a bar, and a couple stools at the side of the road. Without noticing his questioning look, Akaashi unbuckles his seatbelt and opens the door to step out of the car. He stops when he notices that Bokuto hasn’t moved an inch, eyeing the place with what looks like a mixture of distrust and surprise.

     “Bokuto-san,” he calls out, earning his attention. “Is something wrong?”

     “Oh, no, it’s just that,” Bokuto points at the small place in front of them, and Akaashi follows the direction of his finger before returning his gaze to his face. “Are you sure this is the place? It looks…”

     “Unsanitary?” Akaashi provides with an amused smile. Bokuto looks at the place again and then nods. “I didn’t think you’d be the kind of person to dislike these kids of places, Bokuto-san.”

     “Oh, no, I love these kinds of places,” Bokuto says, waving his hands in front of his chest. “The dirtiest-looking, the better.”

     “But?”

     “It’s just that _you_ don’t seem like the kind of guy who likes these kinds of places.”

     “Well, this place makes the most disgustingly gigantic, greasy, sinful burgers I’ve ever seen,” Akaashi explains with a shrug, lips still curled up in amusement. “And you have to admit that there’s nothing better than a monstrous burger after your date completely and utterly obliterates you in a bowling match.”

     “You had me at ‘disgustingly gigantic’,” Bokuto admits, opening the door and stepping out of the car. Akaashi grins and gets out too, waiting for Bokuto to walk around the car and join him before making his way over to the tiny restaurant. “And just for the record, you didn’t ‘obliterate’ me, I was a decent opponent!”

     “Well, if you want a rematch, we could bet on who finishes his burger first,” Akaashi suggests playfully as they climb onto their stools.

     “Fine, but whoever wins gets to eat what’s left of the loser’s burger.”

     “You sound awfully serious about this, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi comments with a raised eyebrow.

     “Burgers are a very serious matter, Akaashi,” Bokuto deadpans, staring into his eyes with a strangely intense gaze. A few silent seconds pass before they both burst out laughing in unison. Bokuto waits until Akaashi’s laughter recedes to regain his no-joke look, nearly sending his date into another fit. “I was serious about that bet, though.”

     “So was I,” Akaashi says with a challenging smirk that Bokuto instantly mirrors.

~•~

     A truce is reluctantly reached when they realize there is no way they can’t even finish such monstrous combination of beef, bread, bacon, cheese, and god knows what more is in their humongous burgers. They need a while to recover enough to walk back to the car, aluminum foil-wrapped burger remains in hand, and satisfied smiles in place.

     “Woo, boy, you were right,” Bokuto starts once they are both inside his car. “Those burgers _were_ sinful.”

     “I know,” Akaashi agrees, rubbing his stomach with his hand. “I don’t think I will be able to move properly in a while, but I have no regrets.”

     A comfortable silence befalls them, as they both lean back on their seats and try to breathe properly despite their inflated bellies. Akaashi even closes his eyes, letting a relaxed sigh escape his lips as he links his fingers over his stomach. He opens them after a while when he hears the sound of Bokuto’s keys jingling as the fishes them out of his pocket to start the car.

     “I guess I’ll take you home now,” Bokuto says. Akaashi rushes to grab his wrists before he can push the key into the ignition, earning a questioning look from wide yellow eyes.

     “I don’t want to go home yet, Bokuto-san,” he says, holding his gaze with all the intensity he can muster.

     But it becomes hard when Bokuto’s eyes on his make him feel all sorts of weak, boring into his with a familiar warmth that Akaashi distantly hopes will never stop engulfing him whenever their gazes meet. And he feels even weaker when Bokuto’s face softens into an unusually gentle smile, just before he slowly reaches out to brush a loose strand of hair from Akaashi’s face, and gingerly place it behind his ear.

     “I don’t want to, either,” he says, his voice barely a whisper, but still loud enough to make Akaashi’s breathe hitch ever so slightly.

     Everything feels heavy all of sudden. The air around them feels tight, and Bokuto’s fingers, still brushing against the shell of Akaashi’s ear, are unbearably close, and yet too far away. They slowly and gently begin to trail down from Akaashi’s ear to his jaw, and towards his chin, and Bokuto doesn’t fail to notice how Akaashi’s eyes break free from his to stare at his lips. Their gazes lock together one more time in a way that makes them both freeze in place, too caught up in deciphering what’s hiding behind each other’s eyes to even notice that the world keeps moving around them.

     And then, Akaashi’s cell phone begins to ring inside his pocket, effectively reminding them that there are more things in the world than each other’s eyes, and lips, and fingers, and the unbearable urge to get lost in all of that, even if just for a moment.

     “I’m sorry,” Akaashi mumbles, fumbling to take out his cell phone. Bokuto’s eyes remain fixed on him as he stares at the screen and frowns before answering the call and taking the phone to his ear. “Hello, Suga-san?”

     Bokuto’s brows furrow together as well when he hears Suga’s concerned voice coming from Akaashi’s phone. Despite Bokuto being unable to decipher what Suga is saying, he can hear how worried he is, and notice how rushed his words are. Akaashi’s scowl becomes deeper and deeper by the second, and he slowly shakes his head as he takes in whatever it is that Suga is telling him.

     “Alright. Alright. We’ll be right there.” Akaashi ends the call and drops the phone on his lap, staring right ahead with an absent look on his face.

     “Akaashi?” Bokuto asks, his worry intensifying at Akaashi’s strange reaction. When he gets no answer, he moves to grasp his shoulder, shaking him a little. “Akaashi, what’s wrong?”

     “It’s Kenma,” Akaashi mumbles. He turns his head to meet Bokuto’s eyes, his lower lip trembling before he can get his next words out. “We need to go to the hospital.”

~•~

     They sprint down the pristine hallways of the hospital, narrowly avoiding colliding with nurses and vending machines in their rush to get to Kenma’s side. Bokuto can barely keep up with Akaashi, who takes stride after stride like his life depends on it.

     They finally reach the third floor, and rush to the receptionist’s desk, earning a wide-eyed look of surprise from the secretary as they nearly slam against the counter.

     “We’re here for Kenma,” Akaashi manages to choke out between raspy breaths. “Akaashi Kenma. I’m his father.”

     “He’s in room twenty-four,” the receptionist explains, standing up to point at said room. “At the end of the hall.”

     Akaashi doesn’t even thank her before he’s running down the hall again, Bokuto in tow. He nearly slams against the door in his rush to open it, and Bokuto steps forward to open it for him, gently pushing Akaashi’s trembling hands aside.

     “Kenma!” Akaashi exclaims as he runs into the room.

     Kenma is sitting on the bed with his hands on his lap, and his feet dangling a couple feet over the floor. Suga is sitting next to him, gently petting his hair, and they both snap their heads up to look at them when they walk in.

     “He’s fine,” Suga rushes to reassure them, springing up from the bed. “The doctor said he’s fine.”

     “What happened?” Bokuto asks Suga as Akaashi rushes to crouch in front of his son, holding his face between his hands to inspect it with evident worry.

     “The kids were playing together and he fell down the stairs,” Suga explains, walking over to him to give Kenma and Akaashi some space. “He told me his wrist hurt a lot, so I left the kids with Daichi and brought him here.”

     “Are you okay?” Akaashi asks, frantically pushing Kenma’s hair back to stare into his eyes. He doesn’t wait for Kenma to answer before turning to Suga with wide, desperate eyes. “What did the doctor said?”

     “It’s just a light sprain,” Suga explains softly, making a calming gesture with his hands. “He’ll be completely fine after a few days of rest. He doesn’t even need a cast.”

     “I’m fine,” Kenma mumbles, earning his father’s attention back. “It doesn’t hurt anymore.”

     Akaashi’s face scrunches up as he inspects his son’s face again, and he suddenly moves to engulf him in a hug. Kenma’s eyes widen with surprise, and Akaashi holds him even tighter.

     “Oh, Kenma, I was so worried,” Akaashi mumbles into his soft hair, taking a moment to breathe in his son’s familiar smell before he continues in a shaky voice. “I was so scared that you were hurt, or in pain. I was so worried…”

     Bokuto and Suga watch as Kenma blinks slowly a couple times before his face scrunches up just like his father’s. He begins to cry after a moment, wailing loudly as he wraps his arms around Akaashi’s neck and buries his face into his shoulder.

     “Dad!” he cries out, his tiny hands fisting into Akaashi’s coat.

     “I’m here, kitty-cat,” Akaashi reassures him, running a calming hand down his head and back and letting him cry on his shoulder. “You’re fine. I’m here.”

     “Dad!” Kenma repeats, holding onto him like his life depends on it. “I was so scared!”

     “I know, baby, I know.” Akaashi sniffles loudly before leaning back slightly to look into Kenma’s face. He wipes away his tears, ignoring his own as he gives his son a warm smile. “You were very brave. I’m here now, okay?”

     Kenma nods before throwing himself into Akaashi’s arms again. Akaashi receives him gently, shifting to sit on the bed with Kenma on his lap. Bokuto and Suga exchange knowing looks and soft smiles before silently leaving the room to give the two of them some privacy.

     Akaashi makes a mental note to thank them later, but now he just focuses on holding Kenma’s small frame and comfortingly petting his hair as he cries silent tears into his shirt, hiccupping every once in a while. There’s not an ounce of worry or fear left in his body, all replaced with the warmth feeling that comes every time the sound of Kenma’s voice as he called him “dad” echoes around his head.

~•~

     “I’m so, so sorry!”

     “Suga-san, I already told you that you don’t need to apologize.”

     Bokuto, Akaashi, Suga, and Daichi are standing at the entrance of Suga and Daichi’s house, while their kids play in the living room. This could easily be the twentieth time Suga effusively apologizes to Akaashi, pressing his hands together in front of his face and scrunching up his nose.

     “Yes, I do!” he insists. “I was supposed to be taking care of them, and I let Kenma-kun get hurt…”

     Bokuto lets his hand fall on Suga’s shoulder in a reassuring gesture, getting a puppy-eyed look in return.

     “Don’t worry about it, Suga. Those things happen,” he says. “It could’ve happened to any of us.”

     “But-” Suga begins, but Daichi interrupts him by circling his waist with one arm.

     “And it was my fault too.” He smiles warmly at his husband, grabbing his chin between his thumb and index finger and shaking his head a little. “Akaashi already said we’re forgiven, so stop beating yourself up.”

     “You have accumulated years of forgiveness after all those strawberry rolls, Suga-san,” Akaashi jokes, smiling to himself when his comment makes Suga chuckle.

     “So, now that Suga has stopped being dumb, I think I should take you home,” Bokuto says, and Akaashi nods in response. “Tetsu, Kenma! We’re leaving!”

     Tetsurou and Kenma appear at the doorway at the end of the hall a few moments later, followed by Tobio, and a visibly sleepy Shouyou.

     “You two should stay,” Shouyou mumbles, rubbing his eye. “Daichi-san said he’d make us waffles tomorrow.”

     “Dummy, don’t you see that Kenma wants to be with his dad?” Tobio says, elbowing on the ribs. Shouyou turns to give him a tiny pout, and Tobio looks away from him, crossing his arms over his chest. “Or what, are you bored with just me?”

      “Never!” Shouyou exclaims, throwing his arms over his neck. Tobio pretends to be bothered by it, but none of the adults miss the triumphant smirk on his face as he receives his friend's hug.

     “You sure you don’t wanna stay, buddy?” Bokuto asks Tetsurou when he reaches his side. Tetsurou shakes his head, and moves to hold Kenma’s hand.

     “I want to keep Kenma company. We can have a sleepover another day,” he says, and Bokuto smiles fondly at him before ruffling his hair a little.

     They all exchange warm goodbyes before the four of them head to Bokuto’s car. Once they are all inside, both Bokuto and Akaashi turn around to make sure that both kids have their seatbelts secured in place before giving each other tired, but satisfied smiles.

~•~

     Kenma and Tetsurou speed past them as soon as Akaashi opens the door, headed to Kenma’s room. Bokuto steps in after Akaashi to stand in the foyer next to him, watching as the boys run across the hallway and disappear behind the doorway.

     “Hey, Tetsu!” Bokuto calls out after his son. “We’re just here to drop Kenma and Akaashi off, so don’t get too comfortable, buddy!”

     “Let them play a little,” Akaashi says. “It’s not even their bedtime yet.”

     Bokuto lets out a big yawn at the mention of a bed. He stretches his arms over his head, suddenly feeling very tired when he hears his bones popping into place.

     “Well, I think it’s _my_ bedtime already,” he jokes, making Akaashi chuckle.

     “Bokuto-san,” Akaashi starts, staring at him with tired eyes, and a gentle smile. “Thank you.”

     “What for?”

     “For being there tonight. And for the date,” Akaashi looks down at his feet, worrying his bottom lip between his teeth and bashfully brushing his hair behind his ear. “I had an amazing time.”

     “That’s because _you_ are amazing,” Bokuto blurts out with one of his trademark dumb grins. Akaashi smiles and giggles, before looking back up to meet Bokuto’s gaze.

     “ _I_ _actually giggled? What’s wrong with you, Keiji, are you a schoolgirl?”_

     And out of nowhere, in a way they can’t explain, it’s like their eyes meeting one more time takes them back to that moment in the car before Suga called. Only now, they are standing in front of each other, the tips of their shoes almost close enough to brush together. And before they realize what they are doing, their lips are getting close, _so close_ , and now breathing seems like an impossible task because they can see each other’s eyelashes fluttering as they slowly, _slowly_ close their eyes and tilt their heads ever so slightly so their breathing mingles together, and they are _so, so close,_ close enough for Akaashi to gently, _gently_ place his hand on Bokuto’s chest, and for Bokuto to curl his fingers around Akaashi’s hip with barely contained urgency, just as their lips are about to brush against each other, and…

     “I love you, butt-squish!”

     They both freeze in place at the sound of Tetsurou’s voice coming from Kenma’s room upstairs, right over their heads. Their hearts still beat like crazy inside their chests, the air is still frozen in their lungs, their gazes are still locked together behind heavy eyelids, and their lips are still painfully close, but the strange sentence that Tetsurou so loudly delivered above them is enough to break the spell that had bound them mere seconds ago.

     “Did your son just call mine a ‘butt-squish’?” Akaashi whispers after what feels like an eternity. Bokuto can’t ignore the way his breath tickling his lips makes him feel all sorts of dizzy and weak at the knees, but they still remain in the same position, unmoving despite their compromising closeness.

     “I might call Tetsu a butt-squish every once in a while,” Bokuto confesses once he is more or less sure that he can form coherent sentences despite being all but pressed against Akaashi’s body.

     But despite Bokuto’s tremendous efforts to stay still, Akaashi suddenly breaks away from him, leaning back to give him a dumbfounded look. Bokuto’s hand closes around the spot where Akaashi’s hip was a moment ago, and he instinctively leans forward a little against the sudden empty space that separates them. It takes him a moment to realize that Akaashi’s wide eyes and furrowed brows are silently asking for an explanation.

     “What the hell?” Akaashi hisses, shaking his head in disbelief when Bokuto doesn’t say anything.

     “What? It’s a term of endearment!” Bokuto defends, raising his palms towards the ceiling and shrugging.

     They wordlessly stare at each other for a few seconds, frozen still, until Kenma’s soft voice wafts over from the second floor.

     “Did you just call me a butt-squish?”

~•~

     It isn’t until Bokuto gets a concerned call from Takeda-sensei about Tetsurou’s extensive usage of the term “butt-squish”, that he decides to listen to Akaashi, and start finding less unusual nicknames for his son.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Butt-squish is a very dear term for me.
> 
> I'm sorry that this chapter took so long. I started college two weeks ago and it's been hectic, but I think I'm getting the hang of this whole balancing homework and writing fic thing, so hopefully the next chapter won't take as long as this one. Like the last one, this chapter is unbeta'd because my beta has gone back to college as well, but I didn't want to make you guys wait any longer, so I decided to post it, and then come back to correct any mistakes later. If you find any big mistakes or anything, please let me know so I can fix it!
> 
> Lastly, I really want to thank you for all your kind comments, you guys are amazing ♥ You are all so sweet, and I truly enjoy getting to read your opinions, or getting to know what you are expecting to happen, and what you are excited for. It's really an amazing feeling to know that people like what I write, and it makes me want to write even more, so thank you so much!
> 
> See you soon! :)


	5. Chapter 5

     The sounds of sneakers chirring against the polished wooden floor, the noise of a basketball bouncing around, and loud exclamations of _“pass the ball!”_ and _“over here!”_ mingle together and echo against the walls of the gym, as Bokuto’s students play a fiery basketball match for that day’s P.E. lesson. He tries to focus on watching his students as they dribble across the gym, stealing the ball and narrowly avoiding each other as they try to reach the end of the court and score, but it doesn’t take much for his mind to end up wandering towards more distracting thoughts.

     Like how pink and plush Akaashi’s lips looked when he was leaning in towards him the night before, so torturously slow that Bokuto was able to catch sight of how his eyelashes brushed against his cheeks when he closed his eyes. Or the warmth and softness of his touch when he placed his hand on Bokuto’s chest, and how the tip of his hipbone poked the palm of Bokuto’s hand when he curled his fingers around it. Or how the sweet, _sweet_ smell of Akaashi’s hair surrounded him just when their lips were about to touch. And they were close, so, _so_ close that the memory brings a pang of longing to his chest, and makes his breath get caught in his throat, and maybe he shouldn’t be thinking about this during class, but…

     “Bokuto-sensei!”

     The warning sound of one of his student’s voices makes him look up, just in time to receive a ball square to the face.

     He _definitely_ shouldn’t be thinking about Akaashi during class.

~•~

     “Hey, Bokuto!” Bokuto looks up from his desk to see one of his co-workers walk into the teacher’s room with a pile of papers in his hands, and mocking smile on his lips. “I heard you got a ball to the face today. Nice receive!”

     “Okay, first of all, shut up, Konoha.”

     “Second of all?” Konoha asks when Bokuto doesn’t say anything else after a while.

     “There’s no 'second of all'. I just wanted to say ‘first of all’ because it sounds cool.”

     They stare silently at each other for a while, before Konoha heaves a sigh and heads to his desk with a slow shake of his head.

     “Tell me again why you are so popular with your students?” he asks after setting the pile of papers he was carrying on top of his desk.

     “Because I’m extremely dashing, and also super cool.” Bokuto leans back on his chair to make gun fingers at Konoha. He doesn’t have time to see his reaction before his cell phone begins to ring loudly in his pocket. He fishes it out and looks at the screen, his brow furrowing slightly when he realizes he is receiving a call from Tetsurou’s preschool. He accepts the call and brings the phone to his ear. “Hello?”

     “Good morning, Bokuto-san.” A familiar voice fills the line, sounding polite as ever. “I’m very sorry to bother you at this time.”

     “It’s fine, Takeda-sensei, I was just on a break. Is something wrong?” Bokuto asks, trying, and failing, to keep the sudden worry that shakes him up from taking over his voice.

     “Tetsurou-kun is fine, please don’t worry,” Takeda reassures him from his side of the line, and Bokuto lets out a relieved sigh. “But I’m gonna need you to come here if you are able.”

     “Why? What’s wrong?” Bokuto asks, eyebrows knitting together. He stands up from his chair and grabs his jacket from his desk, already ready to leave. Konoha shoots him a concerned look, just as Takeda sighs quietly on the phone. Bokuto waves his hand at his coworker to let him know that everything is fine, and then returns his utmost attention to his phone to hear Takeda’s answer.

     “Tetsurou-kun got into a fight.”

~•~

          Akaashi slams the car door shut, and turns around just in time to watch Bokuto park his car right behind his. With his car keys still in hand, Akaashi makes his way over to Bokuto, reaching him just as he gets off his car.

     “Akaashi!” Bokuto exclaims, clearly surprised to see him there. “Did they call you as well?”

     Akaashi nods, a tiny scowl forming on his face before he answers.

     “Yes. Shimizu-san said Kenma got into a fight.” They begin to walk together towards the entrance, mirroring one another’s frowns of concern as they approach the preschool in long strides. “Do you know what this is all about?”

     “Takeda-sensei wouldn’t tell me. He said Tetsu is alright, but he didn’t want to talk about it over the phone.”

     “Shimizu-san said the same thing.”

     They don’t say anything else as they make their way through the hallways of the preschool, adorned with all sorts of colorful posters and drawings, and filled with the sounds of children laughing and playing. Normally, such a happy combination would be enough to cheer them up, but their worry and concern are deeply rooted at the pit of their stomachs.

     They finally reach the office, and Bokuto doesn’t hesitate to push the door open as fast as he can, nearly running into the room in his haste. Both he and Akaashi scan the office for their sons, exclaiming their names as soon as they step foot inside.

     “Tetsu!”

     “Kenma!”

     Both the kids, along with Kiyoko and Takeda, who are both standing behind the desk, look up at them with surprise. The boys are sitting on two chairs against the wall, side to side, backs straight and hands fisted on their laps in almost identical positions. Tetsurou sports a small, decorated band-aid on his cheek, and his hair is even more of a mess than usual, but he doesn’t seem too worried about it. Kenma is seemingly unscathed, but there are visible tear tracks on his cheeks, and his eyes look puffy and pink from crying.

     Without another word, Akaashi instantly rushes to kneel in front of Kenma, holding his cheeks in his hands to closely inspect his reddened face. Kenma tries his best to fight back a new wave of tears at the sight of his father’s concerned expression, but he loses the battle when Akaashi carefully caresses his face and moves to engulf him in a hug.

     “Tetsu, what happened!?” Bokuto asks, rushing to stand in front of his son. He grabs him gently by the chin and stares at the band-aid on his face, eyebrows shifting even closer together in a mixture of concern and anger. He turns to look at Kiyoko and Takeda, and they both jump a little in place, startled by Bokuto’s expression and tone of voice. “Who hurt him!?”

     “Akaashi-san, Bokuto-san, I promise your sons are fine,” Takeda says in a reassuring tone, gesturing at two chairs in front of the desk. “Please have a seat.”

     “But-!” Bokuto starts, but then cuts himself short when he feels Akaashi gently place his hand on his arm.

     “Bokuto-san,” he says softly, staring into his eyes with a pleading look. Bokuto holds his gaze for a moment before heaving a defeated sigh, and moving to seat on one of the chairs.

     “Fine,” he mumbles once he’s seated. He gestures for Tetsurou to come closer, and then pulls him on his lap with ease, resting his chin on his son’s hair as he stares at the teachers with a look that demands an explanation. Akaashi sits down next to him, also placing Kenma on his lap, and brushing his hair from his forehead to press a tiny, reassuring kiss there before shifting his attention to Kiyoko and Takeda.

     “I’m sorry that we had to inconvenience you,” Kiyoko begins, taking a seat next to Takeda. “But we thought it was important that we talked about what happened.”

     “Tetsurou-kun got into a fight with one of the boys in his class. It escalated before we could even realize they were fighting,” Takeda explains with a serious expression. “Tetsurou-kun pushed the other boy to the ground and punched him.” Bokuto eyebrows shoot up on his forehead. He looks down at Tetsurou’s face, but his son pointedly avoids his gaze, eyes fixed on his lap. “The other boy scratched his cheek a little when he was trying to defend himself, but other than that, Tetsurou-kun is fine,” Takeda finishes, pushing his glasses higher on the bridge of his nose.

     “Tetsu,” Bokuto says, still searching for his son’s gaze as he inspects his face with intense yellow eyes. The mixture of sternness and concern in his voice is enough to make Tetsurou finally meet his gaze with wide, guilty eyes. “Why did you do that?”

     Tetsurou’s eyes fly to Kenma’s face before returning to his father’s unmoving stare. He hesitates for a moment before answering, fiddling with the hem of his shirt and biting down on his lower lip.

     “He made fun of Kenma’s drawing because he said it was girly,” he mumbles. “He tore it in half, and made Kenma cry.”

     Akaashi worries his bottom lip between his teeth and looks down at Kenma, who returns his gaze with teary yellow eyes. Akaashi wipes his tears and holds him closer to press a kiss on the top of his head, visibly upset by Tetsurou’s answer. A frown returns to Bokuto’s face, and Tetsurou looks back down at his hands, fisted on top of his lap.

     “We understand that Tetsurou-kun only wanted to defend Kenma-kun, but-” Kiyoko begins, but Bokuto promptly interrupts her by raising his hand in front of her face.

     “Hold up.” Kiyoko’s eyes widen with surprise, and she can only manage to blink a couple times in response. Bokuto tears his eyes from her face to fix it on his son’s. “Tetsu.” Tetsurou gingerly looks up, with his eyes wide and his bottom lip buried between his teeth, clearly expecting a scolding. “What did you say to that kid?”

     “That there is nothing wrong with girly things,” Tetsurou mumbles, blinking slowly under his father’s inquisitive gaze.

     Bokuto’s face splits into a grin that his son instantly mirrors, both of their faces immediately losing all of their previous tension.

     “That’s my butt-squish!” Bokuto exclaims, offering a fist-bump that his son returns with instant enthusiasm.

     Akaashi can’t contain a snort at the exchange. He moves to muffle his laughter into his shoulder, just as Kiyoko and Takeda’s eyes widen to the size of plates in unintentional unison.

     “Bokuto-san!” Takeda chastises, eyes darting between Bokuto’s smugly proud expression, and Akaashi’s badly concealed amusement.

     “What? Equality always comes first!” Bokuto defends, spreading his arms at his sides, and Tetsurou nods in agreement from where he is sitting on his lap.

     Akaashi snorts again, louder this time, and Kiyoko can’t stop a tiny giggle from escaping her lips. She bashfully covers her mouth with the tips of her fingers when Takeda turns to give her a look of complete betrayal, and then gives him a silent shrug in return, barely hiding a smile behind her fingers. Takeda heaves a small, defeated sigh, rubbing the bridge of his nose just underneath his glasses.

     “I definitely agree with you, Bokuto-san, but please try to consider a nickname that won’t get me in trouble when Tetsurou-kun repeats it in class,” Takeda half-jokes, finally cracking a smile when his words are met with loud laughter from the other three adults.

~•~

     Tetsurou manages to get out of trouble with the compromise of writing the other boy a heartfelt apology letter, and the promise to never get into a fight again. Fortunately, his opponent (as Bokuto insists on calling the other boy, much to Akaashi’s horror) left the fight with nothing but a bruise on his cheek, and a greatly justified fear of getting near Kenma or Tetsurou ever again, so both his parents and the teachers considered that any further punishment was unnecessary.

     On the other hand, Tetsurou’s opponent ( _“Bokuto-san, you really should stop calling him that. He’s five!”_ ) is required to apologize to Kenma for making fun of him, and making him a new drawing to replace the one he broke. It takes Akaashi, Kiyoko, and Takeda at least fifteen minutes to convince Bokuto that making him Kenma’s personal slave is _not_ a viable option, and he is still upset about it when the four of them leave the office.

     “So the kid makes Kenma cry and gets away with it? I don’t like that one bit!” he complains while they walk the kids back to their respective classrooms.

     “Don’t worry, papa, I gave him what he deserved!”

     “Tetsu, no, what you did was wrong!” Bokuto chastises, getting a deep pout from his son in return. “It was cool and Batman would be proud of you, but you can’t just go around punching people, buddy.”

     “Bokuto-san!” Akaashi exclaims, glaring at him with disapproval.

     “What? I said it was wrong!”

     “So I’m like Batman? Wicked!” Tetsurou exclaims, throwing his fists up into the air. Akaashi gives Bokuto a look that says _I told you so_ all over, and Bokuto grimaces when he realizes his mistake. He doesn’t correct it, though; he doesn’t have the heart to shatter his son’s newfound dream of becoming a night-time vigilante.

     “This is your classroom, right, kitty-cat?” Akaashi asks after a while, once they are standing outside a pastel green wooden door, decorated with paper butterflies and garlands. Kenma nods slowly without saying a word, eyes fixed on the door in front of him. “Okay, then I’ll leave you here. Wait for Shimizu-sensei and-”

     Akaashi stops talking when he feels his son’s hand squeezing his. Kenma is still staring at the door, but a frown has taken over his face at his father’s words.

     “Kenma?” Akaashi says, brows furrowing together with concern at his son’s reaction, but he gets no response.

     Bokuto stares at the both of them for a moment. Then, he crouches down between Tetsurou and Kenma with a warm smile on his lips. His eyes travel from Tetsurou’s curious gaze to Kenma’s tear-stained cheeks, and his smile widens a little before he voices an unexpected suggestion.

     “I say we skip class and go get some ice-cream. What do you guys say?”

     “Yeah!” Tetsurou cheers, smiling so wide that it looks like the top of his head is going to fall off. He turns to Kenma and grabs his hand, shaking it with evident excitement, nearly bouncing up and down in place. “You hear that, Kenma? We’re getting ice-cream!”

     “But Bokuto-san-!” Akaashi begins, but his words die in his throat when Bokuto looks up at him with pleading yellow eyes.

     “Come on, Akaashi. It’s been a rough day for them.” Bokuto doesn’t miss the way Akaashi’s lips purse as he considers his suggestion, so he decides to take advantage of the other man’s momentary hesitation. “And you know Kenma doesn’t want to go in there,” he whispers so the kids don't hear, standing up to be at eye-level with Akaashi.

     Akaashi tears his eyes from Bokuto’s face to look at Kenma, who is actually smiling while Tetsurou pulls at his hand and shakes his entire body at the prospect of not only leaving school early, but also getting ice-cream as a bonus. Akaashi’s eyebrows pinch together as he returns his gaze to Bokuto’s face, and  he heaves a sigh when the other man grins expectantly at him.

     “Alright. But _you_ are going to deal with Takeda-san later.”

     “You’re the man, Akaashi!”

     As Akaashi watches Bokuto grab both of the boys’ hands and run away with them down the hallway, a warm feeling of gratefulness invades his chest. He watches the three of them from afar for a moment, letting his lips curl into a smile at Bokuto and Tetsurou’s loud cheering, and Kenma’s shy, but distinctively happy expression as he curls his fingers around Bokuto’s hand and lets him lead him down the hall. Then, he sighs one more time, and trots to catch up with them, not without berating Bokuto for being so noisy while other kids are still in class.

~•~

     “Papa, can I have two flavors?” Tetsurou asks once he is out of the car, eyeing the ice cream parlor in front of them like it holds the secret to eternal happiness. "I can't pick just one!"

     “Sure thing, buddy.” Bokuto waits until Akaashi and Kenma get out of their car before the four of them make their way inside. “What flavors do you want?”

     “Napolitan and chocolate chips!” Tetsurou announces with a grin.

     “And Kenma?” Bokuto asks, looking at Kenma with a soft smile on his lips.

     “Mint chocolate chips,” Kenma answers without hesitating.

     Bokuto reels his head back and looks at the boy like he is personally offended by his choice of ice cream. Kenma mutely holds his gaze until Tetsurou grabs him by the hand to pull him towards the glass panels of the counter to stare at the ice cream.

     “Mint chocolate chips?” Bokuto repeats once the kids are out of earshot. Akaashi only shrugs in response, and Bokuto scrunches up his nose. “But that’s such a _boring_ flavor!”

     “I know, but he loves it,” Akaashi says, watching fondly as Kenma and Tetsurou press their noses against the glass, standing on their tiptoes to look at all the flavors the parlor has to offer.

     “What about you?” Bokuto asks. Before Akaashi can answer, he stops him by raising his palm in front of his face with a cheeky smile. “Let me guess… Coffee.”

     “Pistachio.”

     “Dammit!” Bokuto snaps his finger and clicks his tongue at his failure, making Akaashi chuckle at his frustration. The smile returns to Bokuto’s face as he leans towards him ever so slightly. “Guess mine.”

     “Bubblegum,” Akaashi says without missing a beat.

     “How did you know!?”

     “Didn’t you know, Bokuto-san?” Akaashi lets a mischievous smile play on his lips, taking a moment to watch Bokuto’s eyebrows knit together over the bridge of his nose before continuing. “Us pretty boys have psychic abilities.”

     Bokuto’s frown deepens at his words. He stares at him for a few seconds, and then heaves a tiresome sigh.

     “You’ve been spending too much time with Suga, haven’t you? I bet you two have a secret Pretty Boy Club.”

     “Maybe.” The corners of Akaashi’s mouth slide even further upwards. He looks at Bokuto from under his lashes, knowing full-well that the gesture drives the other man crazy, if the way Bokuto swallows thickly and turns a little red every time he does that is any indicator. “But let me remind you that it was _you_ who called me a pretty boy when we went bowling last night, Bokuto-san.”

     Akaashi watches with satisfaction as the light shade of pink that dusts Bokuto’s cheeks quickly becomes darker while he splutters indignantly at his words. After a few moments of futile stammering, Bokuto clears his throat to regain his composure, and forces a smile onto his lips before leaning forwards until their noses are almost brushing together. Akaashi is more than a little taken aback at the abrupt movement, but he manages to stay in place. His eyes still widen with surprise at the sudden proximity, and his breath hitches in his throat as he watches Bokuto open his mouth to speak.

     “And I meant it, _pretty boy,_ ” he teases, his voice barely a whisper as his breath collides against Akaashi’s lips in a very pleasant matter. Bokuto smirks at him before leaning back, and only then does Akaashi regain his breathing. Bokuto’s cheeks are still flushed, but he does his best to conceal his blush with a self-confident expression. “I’m gonna go order. Pistachio, right?”

     “Uh-huh,” is all Akaashi can manage, eyes fixed on Bokuto’s yellow gaze, and lips slightly parted as he absently wishes that the color of his cheeks isn’t giving away just how excited he was to have Bokuto’s face so close to his just mere seconds ago.

~•~

     Akaashi and the boys are sitting on a wooden bench outside the parlor when Bokuto emerges with two ice cream cones in each hand.

     “Mint chocolate for Kenma,” he says, handing Kenma his cone, and then offering Tetsurou his extra large one. “And napolitan and chocolate chips for Tetsu.”

     “Thanks, papa!” Tetsurou says with a grin, looking at his ice cream like it has just taught him the true meaning of love.

     “Thanks,” Kenma mumbles. He shyly looks up at Bokuto’s face, and then returns his gaze to his ice cream when the man offers him a bright smile.

     “You’re welcome!” He turns to Akaashi, his smile instantly turning into a mischievous one. “And pistachio for the pre-” Bokuto splutters when Akaashi swiftly kicks him on the shin, silently warning him with a deadly glare to keep the weird nicknames to a minimum around the kids. “Pistachio for Akaashi,” Bokuto mumbles, immediately getting the message. He gingerly hands Akaashi his cone, getting a too-sweet smile in return, and then sits down next to his son on one end of the bench.

     “Papa, can I have some of yours?” Tetsurou asks before his father can even taste his ice cream. Bokuto leans his cone towards his face, and Tetsurou happily laps at it, humming softly at the sweet flavor.

     “You got some on your nose, buddy.” Bokuto reaches out to wipe Tetsurou’s nose with his thumb, and then licks the ice cream off his fingers. Tetsurou smiles brightly at him, and Bokuto returns the gesture before affectionately ruffling his hair.

     Akaashi watches the exchange with a smile before he notices Kenma’s eyes are fixed on his face. He stares at his son for a moment before wordlessly offering his cone to him, smiling encouragingly. Kenma gives a tiny lick to his father’s ice cream before stretching his arm up to put his own cone in front of his face in a silent offering. Akaashi chuckles and obliges, chuckling one more time as he tastes the ice cream because _it_ is _a boring flavor._

     “Thanks, kitty-cat.”

     A tiny, almost unnoticeable smile tugs at the corners of Kenma’s lips before he returns his attention to his own ice cream. Akaashi watches him fondly for a moment, and then his gaze falls into Bokuto’s yellow eyes, already fixed on him as the other man smiles at him. They stare at each other for a few seconds before Bokuto winks at him, eliciting a small chuckle, and a playful eye-roll from Akaashi.

~•~

     “Okay, I _have_ to ask.” Bokuto looks up at him with expectant eyes, curiosity piqued by Akaashi’s words. “Is Tetsurou-kun’s hair a constant mess because you keep ruffling it, or is it naturally like that?”

     Bokuto throws his head back as he lets out a hearty laugh, and Akaashi joins him soon after. Their laughter dies out at the same time, and both their gazes fall on their kids, playing on the slides a few meters away from where they are sitting on the grass. They decided that a short visit to a nearby park was a good idea, seeing as neither Tetsurou nor Kenma were too keen on heading back home after they were done with their ice cream. They made a trip to Akaashi’s house to leave his car there, deciding that letting Bokuto drive them around in his car was way more entertaining for everybody.

     “Well, there’s that. But Tetsu also sleeps really weirdly,” Bokuto explains. Akaashi gives him a confused frown, and Bokuto laughs some more before elaborating. “He sleeps on his stomach, and he grabs his pillow and presses it against both his ears.”

     “That can’t be comfortable,” Akaashi comments, barely holding back his laughter.

     “I know, but he loves sleeping like that,” Bokuto says with a shrug, and a slight shake of his head. “So when he wakes up, his hair is always sticking up in all directions. And I guess I don’t help with the constant ruffling.”

     “It’s cute,” Akaashi remarks with a tiny smile. “I guess weird hair runs in your family, Bokuto-san.”

     “Hey, my hair isn’t weird!”

     Akaashi bursts out laughing at Bokuto’s offended tone, and Bokuto’s pout soon dissolves into a smile when his eyes land on the crinkles that form around Akaashi’s eyes, and the barely noticeable dimples on his cheeks.

     _“Man, this guy’s unfair,”_ he thinks, watching as Akaashi’s laughter recedes, leaving a relaxed smile in its wake.

     “I also have my doubts,” Bokuto says after a moment of silence. “Do you and Kenma share some sort of telepathic connection or something?”

     Akaashi gives him a weird look, clearly not understanding what Bokuto is trying to say.

     “Telepathic connection?”

     “I mean, you always seem to know what Kenma wants, or needs, even when he doesn’t say anything,” Bokuto explains. “Sometimes it looks like you two are having telepathic conversations, or something.”

     “Well, I guess when your son is as silent as mine, you kinda have to learn how to read minds.”

     “So you _are_ a psychic!”

     “I already told you I am. It’s a pretty boy thing, apparently.”

     “Does that mean you can read my mind?” Bokuto asks, raising his eyebrows and smirking teasingly.

     “I don’t need to. You’re pretty easy to read, Bokuto-san,” Akaashi taunts, returning the smirk.

     “Is that so?” Bokuto’s smile widens. He places his hand between him and Akaashi and uses it as support to lean in closer to him. “Then what am I thinking right now?”

     Akaashi takes a moment to examine Bokuto’s face, from his slightly raised eyebrows to the way the corners of his lips are curled upwards, forming tiny expression lines on his cheeks. Finally, he leans back, placing his hands on the grass behind his back to casually rest his weight onto them.

     “Well, Bokuto-san,” he begins in a mock-suspenseful voice. “My advanced psychic abilities tell me that you are most definitely thinking something dumb.”

     Bokuto’s jaw falls open in an offended expression. Akaashi can’t stop himself from snorting loudly when he brings a hand to his chest like he has been stabbed in the heart, wide yellow eyes full of hurtful shock.

     “Wow. I would’ve never expected that from you Akaashi,” he says, slowly shaking his head from side to side. “Maybe from Suga, but never from you.”

     “I’m sorry to disappoint you, Bokuto-san, but a downside to pretty boys is that we are usually _very_ mean,” Akaashi jokes, forcing his expression to remain neutral despite his gigantic desire to just burst out laughing at Bokuto’s perfectly crafted expression of hurt and betrayal.

     “I guess they become meaner with age.”

     It’s Akaashi’s turn to gasp and grab at his chest this time, and the gesture is far too funny for Bokuto to remain serious for one more second. He explodes into peals of laughter, soon followed by Akaashi, who doubles over and presses his forehead into Bokuto’s shoulder as he tries to breath between thunderous bouts of amusement.

     They look up, still trying to regain their breathing, at the sound of two sets of tiny footsteps approaching them. Tetsurou and Kenma stop in front of them, looking at their fathers with wide, interrogating eyes.

     “What are you laughing about?” Tetsurou asks. “Did any of you fart?”

     Tetsurou’s innocently uttered comment is enough to send them into another round of laughter, already far too amused by everything and anything.

     “No, buddy, we didn’t fart.” Bokuto wipes his laughter-induced tears from his eyes and then stares at his watch, brows furrowing as he notices the time. “Shoot, my team’s volleyball practice starts in like half-an-hour.”

     “Let’s get going, then,” Akaashi says. He stands up, shaking off remains of grass and dirt from the back of his pants before offering his hand to Bokuto. “We don’t want you to be late.”

     Bokuto nods and takes Akaashi’s hand to hoist himself up.

     “Then I’ll drive you home and I’ll take Tetsu with me.”

     “Tetsurou-kun can stay at our house if you want,” Akaashi suggests. He smiles down at the boys, who in turn exchange excited glances at his words. “A post-ice scream sleepover never hurts.”

     “Can I, papa?” Tetsurou pleads, tugging at Bokuto’s pants with a wide-eyed, pleading look. Bokuto reaches down to ruffle his head and nods.

     “Of course, buddy!”

     “Yaaaay!” Tetsurou lets go of his father’s pants to throw his arms around Kenma’s neck and rub their cheeks together with glee. “Sleepover!”

     “Yaaaay,” Kenma echoes, sounding way less cheery and excited than Tetsurou, but still visibly happy nonetheless.

     Bokuto and Akaashi exchange knowing glances and chuckle. They grab their respective sons’ hands, and then start to make their way over to Bokuto’s car.

~•~

     “Thanks again, Akaashi. You’re a life saver.”

     “It’s no problem, Bokuto-san. Especially after you took such good care of us today.”

     “Nah, I did not,” Bokuto says, waving his hand in front of his face. “I was just over-indulgent as ever and let the kids skip class to get ice cream after Tetsu punched a kid. If you think about it, it wasn’t really the most responsible thing to do.”

     “But it was definitely what we needed today,” Akaashi affirms.

     “Well, I should be going, then,” Bokuto says after a moment, eyeing his watch. He looks up to smile a wide grin at Akaashi, even daring a wink before turning around to head to his car. “See ya!”

     Bokuto is reaching out to open the car door when Akaashi’s voice rings behind him and makes him freeze in place.

     “Bokuto-san, wait!

     The sudden urgency that tints Akaashi’s voice makes him spin around on his feet, just in time to watch him take the final two steps that separate them. Before Bokuto can react, Akaashi grabs him by the collar of his shirt and smashes their lips together in a searing kiss.

     The impact of their mouths crashing together makes Bokuto stumble backwards. He braces himself against his car with one hand as Akaashi’s lips press against his, so warm, so soft, so _perfect_ , and _oh, my god, Akaashi is kissing me._

     That is the last thought that crosses Bokuto’s mind before it becomes completely blank and devoid of anything that isn’t directly related to Akaashi’s warm body pressed against his, his hands grabbing fistfuls of his shirt, and his lips meshed against his in a deep, urgent kiss. Bokuto closes his eyes and circles Akaashi’s waist with his arms to bring him even closer as he deepens the kiss, parting his lips slightly and angling his head to the side to let himself relax into the inviting warmth of Akaashi’s mouth.

~•~

     Kenma pulls back the curtain and stands on his tiptoes to look out the window of his bedroom. He doesn’t really know what inspired him to do so, seeing as playing with Tetsurou, who is currently unpacking all of his Legos, seems like a way more interesting activity. But then his eyes land on two familiar figures standing on the sidewalk in front of his house, and a wave of momentary shock at the situation he finds outside makes him forget all about Tetsurou, the Legos, or the reason he decided to stare out the window in the first place.

     “Hey, Tetsu.”

     “Mmmm?” Tetsurou hums absently as a response, too busy with stacking the Legos in differently-colored stacks to pay too much attention to his friend.

     “My dad is kissing your dad.”

     The sounds of Tetsurou playing completely vanish behind Kenma’s back, and are soon replaced by the sound of hiss hurried footsteps as he approaches the window. He nearly pushes Kenma aside in his haste to look outside, eyes becoming almost impossibly wide when they land on the two unmistakable figures standing next to his father’s car.

     “Ehhhhh!?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m sorry for the irresponsible parenting displayed here. If your kids punch another kid, don’t take them out for ice cream.
> 
> Or do, I totally would. My mom did, and I turned out just fine.
> 
> Once again, thank you all for being super lovely and always leaving such nice comments! ♥ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you think! :D
> 
> Come talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr! ♥


	6. Chapter 6

     Sitting on the edge of his father’s bed, absently dangling his feet above the ground, Tetsurou watches as Bokuto runs his fingers through his hair over and over in a futile attempt to style it without having to tie it, or wax it up. He leans in closer to the big mirror that hangs on the wall in front of his bed, and frowns at his reflection, scrunching up his nose when he reaches the conclusion that he has made an unfixable mess of his hair. Bokuto’s eyes land on Tetsurou’s reflection, staring silently at him from the bed, and he cracks a tiny smile.

     “I’m thinking I should cut my hair a little. It’s gotten a bit too long.” Bokuto straightens his back and turns around to look at his son, hands on his hips, and warm smile in place. “What do you think, buddy?”

     Tetsurou doesn’t answer, opting instead for blinking wordlessly at him. His son’s lack of words unnerves Bokuto a little; he was expecting either some very loud encouraging, or a strong protest to the suggestion of trimming down his hair. Tetsurou’s silence was never an option in his mind, especially considering how loud and vocal the boy usually is.

     Bokuto is about to repeat his question, thinking that his son may have not heard him, when Tetsurou finally speaks up in a tiny voice.

     “Papa, do you want to marry Mr. Pretty?”

     Bokuto’s eyes widen, and his eyebrows shoot up on his forehead. He blinks rapidly a couple times, more than a little surprised by his son’s question. His mind immediately becomes a jumble, and his thoughts crash together like clumsy bees against a window.

     “Whoa! What’s with that question all of sudden?”

     Tetsurou only shrugs in response, wide eyes still fixed on Bokuto’s face.

     “Do you?” he presses.

     Bokuto’s eyebrows knit together while he considers an answer, running his fingers through his hair one more time. He heaves a small sigh after a while, and moves to sit on the bed next to his son.

     “Look, buddy, I’m not gonna lie to you,” Bokuto begins, looking Tetsurou in the eye. “I do like Akaashi a lot. Like, a _lot_.”

     “Do you _like_ like him?” Tetsurou asks, and then his frown deepens when Bokuto nods. “Then that means you wanna marry him!”

     “No! I mean, maybe- I mean, I could, but-” Bokuto puts a stop to his own rambling by letting a big, drawn-out sigh escape his lips. He closes his eyes, and takes a moment to organize his ideas inside his mind. Just having to think of an answer throws his brain into overdrive, and puts a burning blush on his cheeks that makes him feel immensely vulnerable. “ _If_ , after a reasonable amount of time, it comes down to that, then _yes_ , I would marry Akaashi.” Bokuto breathes in deeply and sighs one more time, still inwardly embarrassed at the effect that his son’s question had on him. “But it’s a little bit too soon to be thinking about that, don’t you think?”

     “I guess…”

     Tetsurou drops his gaze to his feet, and he absently juts out his bottom lip in a small pout as he ponders his father’s answer. A wave of concern washes over Bokuto when he sees how upset Tetsurou looks. He softly places his hand on his son’s tiny shoulder and tries to meet his gaze, but the boy refuses to look at him.

     “Why are you so upset, buddy?” Tetsurou slowly raises his gaze to find a warm, reassuring smile on Bokuto’s face. “You can tell me.”

     “It’s just that…” Tetsurou worries his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment, and then raises his voice to rush the rest of his sentence out. “If you marry Mr. Pretty, then I can’t marry Kenma!”

     Once again, Tetsurou’s words take Bokuto completely by surprise. This time, however, a wide grin spreads across his face at the undeniable cuteness of his son’s confession.

     “You wanna marry Kenma?”

     “Of course I do!” Tetsurou exclaims, clearly offended by his dad’s surprise. “Who wouldn’t!?”

     “So _that’s_ what's been bothering you!” Bokuto’s grin widens as he moves to gently poke Tetsurou’s ribs with his index finger, his voice acquiring a teasing tone. “You little love bird, you!”

     “Stop it, dad, that’s mean!” Tetsurou complains, swatting Bokuto’s fingers away with an indignant pout.

     “Sorry, sorry,” Bokuto apologizes with a caring hair-ruffle that seems to soothe his son a little. “But wait, why would me marrying Akaashi mean that you couldn’t marry Kenma?”

     “ _Because,_ ” Tetsurou begins, slapping his hands against the comforter, frustrated about having to explain something that is apparently so obvious to him. “If you and Mr. Pretty get married, then Kenma and I would be brothers! Brothers can’t get married!”

     “Okay, let’s stop talking about getting married for a moment,” Bokuto eagerly suggests. He is completely sure that if Tetsurou talks about him and Akaashi getting married one more time, he will end up buying a ring and hiring a wedding planner. “What makes you think that you and Kenma would become brothers if Akaashi and I start dating?”

     “Because Mr. Pretty would become my dad! And you would become Kenma’s dad! And then Kenma would be my brother!” Tetsurou exclaims with wide eyes, and lots of hand gestures. “It would be a disaster, papa!”

     “Whoa, whoa! Chill, buddy!” Bokuto exclaims, overwhelmed by the sudden desperation that his son is exhibiting. “If Akaashi and I get together, that doesn’t mean he’d expect to become your dad, or that I’d expect to become Kenma’s.”

     “Really?” Tetsurou asks in a tiny, unsure voice. Bokuto nods once, and then places both hands on Tetsurou’s small shoulders, looking straight into his eyes.

     “Listen, I’m gonna promise you something, right here, right now. No matter what happens between Akaashi and me, your relationship with Kenma doesn’t have to change.”

     “Really?”

     “Of course! We would never force you, or Kenma, to change the way you see each other, or the way you see us. I promise.”

     A tiny smile slowly appears on Tetsurou’s face, and then turns into a full-fledged grin when Bokuto ruffles his hair with a little more enthusiasm than usual.

     “So I _can_ marry Kenma?”

     “Well, you’ll have to woo him first,” Bokuto teases. “Maybe your dashing looks and your charming personality aren’t enough, and you’ll need to put in some extra effort to make Kenma fall for you.”

     “Papa, please,” Tetsurou says with a small eye-roll. “I punched someone for him. I totally got this.”

     “You’re right, how could I forget!” Bokuto explains, slapping his hand on his forehead in mock surprise. “Guess you’ll better start preparing your proposal speech!”

     “I’m gonna go write it!”

     Tetsurou jumps off the bed and runs out of his father’s bedroom and into his, leaving behind a very amused Bokuto.

     “Once you’re done, you should make a paper boat with it!” Bokuto suggests, cupping his hands around his mouth so that Tetsurou hears him. “To make it more romantic!”

     “I’m gonna make an origami rose!” Tetsurou answers from his room. “That’s even _more_ romantic!”

     Bokuto drops his hands into his lap and reels his head back in surprise at his son’s answer. Then he breaks into a smile, and slowly shakes his head from side to side.

     “Damn, I can’t believe my son is smoother than me…”

~•~

     Akaashi is pretty sure that Suga’s long, shrill scream is loud enough to be heard all the way to the next block. If the annoying ringing sound that is left in his ears afterwards is any indicator, then maybe the entire neighborhood could hear it.

     “Suga-san, please don’t scream in my bakery,” Akaashi says after he regains his normal hearing capacities. “You’ll scare my clients away.”

     “Oh, shut up!” Suga exclaims, slamming his hands against the counter. “How can you expect me to be quiet after you freaking tell me that you _kissed Bokuto!?_ ”

     “You kissed Bokuto-san!?” Yaku chimes in, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen, covered in flour.

     “See!?” Suga points at Yaku, who in turn stares at Akaashi with evident bewilderment. “It’s a surprise-inducing revelation!”

     “Why are you acting like it’s a bad thing?” Akaashi asks, a tiny scowl forming on his face as he crosses his arms over his chest in an offended manner.

     “It’s not a bad thing, it’s an amazing thing, we love it!” Suga explains with big hand gestures. “It’s just that…”

     “We always thought it’d be the other way around,” Yaku finishes for him, and Suga nods in agreement. Akaashi raises one eyebrow in a questioning manner, and Yaku rushes to explain himself. “I mean, we thought Bokuto-san would be the one to kiss _you_.”

     “Are you saying I lack initiative?” Akaashi asks, his eyebrows growing even closer together in an offended expression.

     “No, we’re saying that Bokuto has a little _too much_ initiative.” Suga leans on the counter with a smirk, bringing his face a little bit closer to Akaashi’s. “When you two first met, he wouldn’t stop saying that you were his soulmate. So, he likes you _that_ much.”

     Akaashi’s jaw falls open and he splutters for a moment before snapping his mouth closed and looking away in a futile attempt to hide the prominent blush that takes over his entire face.

     “Aw, he’s blushing!” Suga teases, eliciting a quiet giggle from Yaku. Akaashi glares at the both of them, but the bright color of his cheeks does very little to make him look threatening. Suga lets out a mockingly sweet sigh and places his elbow on the counter to grab his face with a wishful expression. “Young love…”

     “I’m thirty-three,” Akaashi deadpans. “I think I’m a little bit too old for young love.”

     “You’re never too old for young love!” Suga exclaims, spreading his arms in an indignant gesture before pointing at Yaku. “Yaku-kun here is twenty-one and he still acts like a schoolgirl when that tall Russian guy from the restaurant across the street is around!”

     “I-I do not!” Yaku stammers, his cheeks immediately turning a bright shade of pink. Akaashi lets out a chuckle, relieved to be out of Suga’s line of fire for a moment.

     “Come on, we’ve both seen you flirting with Lev,” Akaashi teases him as well, his amusement increasing when Yaku’s eyes widen in an expression of complete betrayal. “You can’t fool us.”

     “I do _not_ flirt with that dumb, uncoordinated beanpole!”

     “Aw, he already has a cute nickname for him!”

     “Suga-san, stop it!”

     Akaashi and Suga burst out laughing in unison, giving Yaku the opportunity to sneak back into the kitchen to “check the rolls in the oven.”

     “So,” Suga begins once his laughter recedes. “You kissed Bokuto.”

     “I did.”

     “So what now? Are you guys dating, or…?”

     “I… don’t know.” Akaashi sighs and leans against the counter to bring his face closer to Suga’s. “We haven’t talked about it yet.”

     “And what are you waiting for?”

     Akaashi looks up from the wooden countertop and meets Suga’s gaze. They stare silently into each other’s eyes for a while, until Akaashi lets out a heavy sigh and drops his head to let it hang from his shoulders.

     “It’s complicated, Suga-san.”

     “How is it complicated?” Suga asks with a small frown. “He likes you, you like him... It’s actually quite simple!”

     “And what about the boys?”

     “What about them?”

     “Well, don’t you think it might be weird for them if we start dating?” Akaashi leans forward slightly, his eyebrows knitting together over the bridge of his nose. Suga crosses his arms over his chest and puckers his lips as he considers Akaashi’s question.

     “Maybe at first,” he says after a while. “But they’ll definitely get used to it. After all, they totally adore each other! In the end, you and Bokuto getting together means that they get to spend more time together,” Suga finishes with a broad smile, but Akaashi still doesn’t look too convinced. Suga puts on a more neutral, but still reassuring face, and lets out a small sigh. “As long as you two don’t make it weird for them, the boys will be fine. They’re great kids, you know that.”

     “I know,” Akaashi says, staring at his hands. A tiny smile slowly tugs at the corners of his lips, and he nods his head a little before looking back up at Suga’s face. “You’re right.”

     “Of course I am,” Suga jokes with a smug face. Then he places his forearms on the counter to be face to face with Akaashi, his expression turning serious when he looks into his friend’s eyes. “But the most important thing is… Do you want to be with him or not?”

     “I do!” Akaashi answers immediately, and Suga smirks at his eagerness. “I do, but…” Akaashi bites on his lower lip for a few seconds, deep in thought, and then meets Suga’s gaze again with newfound determination shining in his eyes. “I wanna take it slow. See what happens.”

     “Then you should do exactly that,” Suga prompts him with a gentle smile, just as Yaku emerges from the kitchen with a tray full of cinnamon rolls. Suga’s smile quickly turns into a mischievous smirk as he watches the boy innocently carry the tray towards the counter. “Oh, look, it’s Lev!”

     Yaku nearly drops the rolls in his haste to look up and inspect the store. It takes him a few moments to realize that Lev is, in fact, not there, and then it takes his cheeks about half a second to turn a deep, bright shade of pink. He gives Suga a horrified look, and sets the tray on the counter before covering his face with his hands, his bright-pink ears still visible from behind his fingers.

     “You’re a cruel, cruel person, Suga-san,” he mumbles, defeated.

     “And you, my boy, are completely head over heels with that beloved beanpole of yours,” Suga says, reaching out from over the counter to place his hand on Yaku’s shoulder. Yaku lowers his hands and gives him a wide-eyed look of horror.

     “He’s just so stupid…” he mumbles, slowly shaking his head from side to side.

     Akaashi places his hand on Yaku’s free shoulder, and the boy, still shaking his head, covers his face again. Akaashi and Suga exchange an amused look, doing their best not to burst out laughing at Yaku’s evident misery.

     “Dumb and cute is a _very_ dangerous combination,” Suga says wistfully, and Akaashi nods in agreement.

~•~

     “Papa, wait!”

     Bokuto freezes in place, with his knuckles inches away from the door. He gives his son an inquiring look, and the sight of his eternally-ruffled hair, and the pretty origami rose (made by both of them after several YouTube tutorials, and even more failed attempts) in his hands instantly puts a smile on his face.

     “What is it, buddy?”

     “Do I look handsome?” Tetsurou asks, raising his arms at his sides and sticking out his chest.

     “You always look handsome!” Bokuto assures him with a thumbs-up.

     “Yes, but this is especial! I’m gonna propose!”

     “Well, you look especially handsome!”

     Bokuto’s words are reassuring enough for Tetsurou to grin widely, and nod once with evident determination. Bokuto turns to the door, and once again stops just as his hand is about to touch the door.

      “And how do _I_ look?” he asks his son.

     “Like a cool son of a gun!” Tetsurou exclaims without an ounce of hesitation. Bokuto laughs heartily at his son’s response, and then finally gives a sharp knock on the wooden door in front of him.

     “Let’s do this, buddy!”

~•~

     The sound of someone knocking at the front door travels all the way to the kitchen, followed almost instantly by the sound of quick, tiny footsteps making their way from the living room. Akaashi looks up from the dough he’s kneading, just in time to see Kenma’s head pop in from the doorway.

     “Tetsu’s here,” he announces in what sounds like a bored tone, but Akaashi knows his son well enough to know that he is immensely excited about his play date with Tetsurou.

     “I know, I know.” Akaashi smiles softly and wipes his flour-covered hands on his apron. He stops to caress Kenma’s head on his way to the front door, his smile widening when he notices he has left a small trail of flour on his son’s black hair. “Let’s go.”

     As soon as Akaashi opens the door, Tetsurou collides against the other boy, wrapping his arms around his smaller frame with explosive enthusiasm.

     “Kenma!”

     “Hi, Tetsu.”

     “Let’s go play!”

     Without giving Kenma any time to answer, Tetsurou grabs him by the hand and runs down the hall towards the living room, dragging Kenma along. Bokuto and Akaashi watch them go, and Akaashi waits until they are out of sight to give Bokuto an sweet smile.

     “Tetsurou-kun is pretty excited today, huh?”

     “That’s because he’s gonna propose!” Bokuto announces with a playful eyebrow-wiggle.

     “Oh, is that so?” Akaashi asks, laughter tinting his voice in a way that puts a dumb, wide grin on Bokuto’s face. “Come in, Bokuto-san.”

     Bokuto steps in, and waits until Akaashi closes the door to follow him down the hall and towards the kitchen.

     “What’s with the apron?” Bokuto asks once they walk past the boys playing in the living room. “Were you cooking something?”

     “Apple pie.” Akaashi looks at him from over his shoulder, and then gives him a tiny smile. “Kenma’s favorite.”

     “Oh, man, I love apple pie!” Bokuto exclaims. “Can I help you out?”

     “I was hoping you would, actually,” Akaashi says once they step inside the flour-covered kitchen. He rests his back against the counter where he was preparing the dough, and looks at Bokuto with a smile that looks almost teasing. “I have a feeling you are an amazing apple peeler, Bokuto-san.”

     Bokuto returns Akaashi’s smirk and steps closer to him. He places one hand on the edge of the counter right next to Akaashi’s waist, and leans towards him ever so slightly.

     “Is that why you asked me to come today?” he asks, staring into Akaashi’s eyes with a flirtatious smile that he doesn’t bother to hide. “To help you peel apples?”

     “That, and…” Akaashi cocks his head to the side and bats his eyelashes in a way he knows is guaranteed to make Bokuto’s heart skip a beat. “I thought maybe I’d get to kiss you some more.”

     Despite Bokuto’s evident efforts to remain calm, Akaashi can hear him swallow hard, and he notices the way his left eyebrow twitches a little at his words. All in all, Bokuto still does a fantastic job at remaining outwardly relaxed, despite the fact that Akaashi’s teasing remark just made a complete disaster of his mind.

     “Is that so?” he mumbles, doing his best to sound smooth, and sounding immensely nervous instead. The slight tremble of his voice elicits a breathy chuckle from Akaashi, but it quickly dies at the back of his throat when Bokuto cocks his head to the side and brings his lips a few centimeters closer to Akaashi’s. The corners of Bokuto’s lips are slightly curved upwards, his cheeks are dusted with the lightest shade of pink, and a couple strands of his hair have fallen from his messy bun and now rest in front of his yellow eyes, sharpened with a gaze so intense that it gives Akaashi goose bumps.

     _“So much for taking it slow, Keiji,”_ Akaashi thinks as his eyes travel from Bokuto’s eyes to his lips.

     “Mm-hm,” Akaashi hums, nodding his head a couple times in a deliberately slow manner. Bokuto keeps carefully leaning forward as they speak, and now Akaashi can feel his breath brushing against his lips. “But first…” In one fluid motion, Akaashi ducks under Bokuto’s arm and slides away to grab two apples that are resting on the counter. He shows them to Bokuto with a cheeky smile, entirely amused at the dumbfounded expression on the other man’s face. “You have apple-peeling duties, Bokuto-san.”

     Bokuto stares at him in complete silence for a moment, and then lets out a breathy laugh, shaking his head in disbelief.

     “You sure got your priorities straight, huh?” he asks, peeking up at Akaashi from under his lashes.

     “If something involves you rolling up your sleeves, Bokuto-san, then it is _very_ high up my priority list.”

     “Oh, really?” Bokuto says with a smile, clearly flattered by Akaashi’s remark. ”And what if I _don’t_ roll up my sleeves to peel apples?”

     Akaashi’s smile widens even more. He sets the apples down and takes a step towards Bokuto, placing his hands on his hips and raising his chin a little.

     “We both know you will. No one wants to waste an opportunity to showcase one of their major charm points.”

     “Is that why you keep fluttering your eyelashes at me?” Bokuto says, imitating Akaashi’s teasing voice.

     “Maybe,” Akaashi concedes, shrugging one shoulder and smirking before turning around to open a drawer. He takes out a peeler and hands it to Bokuto with a look that says _‘now get to work’_ all over. Bokuto takes it and sets it on the counter before moving to roll up his sleeves, and Akaashi makes sure to flutter his eyelashes a little before returning his attention to his dough.

~•~

     “Done!” Bokuto announces, setting his tenth peeled apple on the counter next to the others.

     “That was fast!” Akaashi observes, eyeing the apples with surprise.

     “What, did you think you were the only one with supreme cooking skills?”

     “Well, you don’t really look like someone who’s good in the kitchen, Bokuto-san.”

     “Wow, that was rude!” Bokuto exclaims, clutching his chest like Akaashi’s words physically hurt him. “Who do you think makes Tetsu’s super cool bentous?”

     “Sorry, sorry,” Akaashi apologizes, but the laughter in his voice makes it evident that he is not sorry at all. “Could you please slice the apples now, Mr. Superior Apple-Peeler?”

     “That’s _Captain_ Superior Apple-Peeler for you.” Bokuto grabs a knife and one of the apples and begins to skillfully cut it into thin slices. “Captain Superior Apple Peeler Mc Hottie Dream Biceps.”

     Akaashi reels his head back in shock, and stares at Bokuto with wide eyes. Then, he snorts loudly and bursts out laughing, covering his mouth with one hand, and clutching to his stomach with the other. Bokuto joins him immediately, their loud voices filling the kitchen.

     “What the-!?” Akaashi chokes out between bouts of hysterical laughter. “ _‘Mc Hottie Dream Biceps’_!? Seriously!?”

     “It was the first thing I could think of, okay!?” Bokuto defends himself. “You were the one who was talking about my arms earlier!”

     They keep laughing like idiots and teasing each other while Bokuto finishes slicing the apples, and Akaashi assembles the pie and places it in the oven. Once the pie is in place, Akaashi closes the oven and takes off his apron. He leans back against the counter next to Bokuto with a tiresome, yet satisfied sigh.

     “Mc Hottie Dream Biceps,” he repeats one more time, laughing a little bit at the ridiculous combination of words.

     “Hey, Akaashi.”

     “Mmmm?” Akaashi hums in response, turning his head to look at Bokuto. But he doesn’t even have time to actually look at him, because before Akaashi can even finish turning his head, Bokuto is already pressing their lips together.

     It takes Akaashi a total of two seconds to recover from his initial surprise, and then he’s burying his hands in Bokuto’s hair and reciprocating the kiss with the utmost enthusiasm. Bokuto’s hands find their place on Akaashi’s hips to pull him closer to his chest, just as Akaashi parts his lips and brushes his tongue against Bokuto’s lower lip. Bokuto moans, low and quiet, and sucks Akaashi’s lower lip into his mouth to bite it softly. Akaashi sighs against Bokuto’s lips, with a tiny whimper at the back of his throat. Bokuto breaks the kiss and leans back to look at Akaashi. He takes a moment to appreciate the rosiness of his cheeks, his half-lidded eyes, and his kiss-bruised lips before diving in to plant an open-mouthed kiss on the skin just underneath Akaashi’s ear.

     Akaashi definitely whimpers this time. He throws his head back to expose more of his skin, and Bokuto wastes no time before leaving a trail of soft kiss all over Akaashi’s neck. Akaashi’s eyes flutter closed when Bokuto’s lips find his earlobe with the most delicate of kisses. He lets out a sigh at the pleasant sensation, unconsciously tightening his grip on Bokuto’s hair.

     “Bokuto-san,” he chokes out, biting back a moan when Bokuto bites softly on his earlobe. “Bokuto-san!”

     The slight raise in his voice is enough to get Bokuto’s attention. He separates himself from Akaashi, enough to inspect his flushed face with worry, but still standing close enough so that Akaashi’s fingers remain tangled in his hair.

     “What’s wrong, Akaashi?” he asks with a small frown.

     “I love what we’re doing, believe me,” Akaashi starts, and a smug little smile finds its way to Bokuto’s lips. Akaashi takes a moment to reciprocate it before continuing, untangling one hand from Bokuto’s hair to place it on his cheek. “But we should… calm down a little. The boys are playing in the living room, and…” he trails off when he feels his cheeks heating up under Bokuto’s scrutiny.

     “Oh, right, the boys!” Bokuto runs one hand through the complete mess that is his hair, his loyal bun barely even existent anymore after Akaashi’s attentions. “You’re right. We should like… chill.”

     “Yes, we should.”

     “But I really wanna keep kissing you…” Bokuto says with a small pout.

     Akaashi chuckles at Bokuto’s expression. He reaches out to undo what remains of his bun, and runs his fingers through the multi-colored strands in an attempt to comb them down. Bokuto closes his eyes and hums contentedly at the pleasant sensation of Akaashi’s fingertips brushing against his scalp. Akaashi watches him fondly for a moment before softly brushing their lips together in a tiny kiss. Bokuto kisses him back, and then smiles when they part, opening his eyes to return Akaashi’s warm look. With a sigh, he rests his lower back against the counter again, tearing his eyes from Akaashi’s to stare at the wall. They remain silent for a while, content with just being next to each other.

     “Tetsu asked me if I was going to marry you,” Bokuto says all of sudden, finally breaking the silence.

     Akaashi snaps his head to look at him with a surprised expression, and then snorts. They start laughing at the same time, shaking their heads at the innocence of Tetsurou’s question.

     “Kids really do deal in absolutes, huh?” Akaashi comments once their laughter recedes. Bokuto nods with a tiny eye roll, and Akaashi laughs again, softer this time. Then he drops his gaze to his shoes, and gingerly brushes his hair behind his ear. “And what did you tell him?”

     Bokuto turns his face away when he feels his cheeks heating up. He scratches the back of his neck, uncomfortably aware that Akaashi’s eyes are fixed on him as he waits for an answer.

     “That I didn’t know about marrying you… yet…” Bokuto finally answers. Akaashi’s heart skips a beat at his last word, and he can’t stop a nervous laugh from pushing past his lips. Bokuto laughs as well, visibly nervous as he tries to put his thoughts into words without sounding as awkward as he feels. “But that I really, _really_ want to be with you.” Bokuto finally turns to look at him, no longer worried about hiding his prominent blush. He stares into Akaashi’s eyes with a piercing gaze for a few seconds before continuing. “I really like you a lot, Akaashi. Like, really, really. More than I have ever liked anyone else,” he says, his expression and tone as serious as they can get. Then his face softens as he raises his hand to caringly run his knuckles down Akaashi’s face. Akaashi closes his eyes and leans into his touch with a relaxed smile. “I like talking to you, spending time with you, and I _really_ like kissing you…”

     Akaashi opens his eyes and stares into Bokuto’s yellow ones before leaning in to press a soft kiss against his lips. Bokuto’s eyelids fall closed, and he sighs contentedly into the kiss, leaning forward a little when Akaashi leans back.

     “I like you very, very much too, Bokuto-san,” he says with a smirk that is a mixture of bashfulness and joy.

     Bokuto’s face splits into a bright grin. He reaches out to circle Akaashi’s waist with his arms, and brings him closer to his chest, leaning back against the counter. Akaashi’s hands fall into his chest, and he absently begins to draw patterns on Bokuto’s shirt with his index fingers.

     “Why don’t you drop the ‘-san’, now that we’re boyfriends?” Bokuto says softly, eyes darting between Akaashi’s lips and his eyes. Akaashi raises his eyebrows and stares at him for a moment before sliding his hands up until he has his arms around Bokuto’s neck.

     “Oh, so we’re boyfriends now?” he teases, inching his face towards Bokuto’s in a sensuous manner.

     “Well, do you go around kissing all of your acquaintances? Cause if you do, you should tell me now.” Bokuto smiles charmingly at him, and Akaashi instantly mirrors his expression. “Don’t let me get my hopes up.”

     Akaashi lets out a breathy laugh before leaning forward to close the space between them, eyelids slowly falling shut as he feels Bokuto’s sweet breath against his face. Just at their lips are about to brush together, a tiny voice reaches them from the doorway.

     “Dad?”

     Bokuto and Akaashi instantly spring apart at the sound of Kenma’s voice. Kenma stares at them with a blank face, wide eyes examining them with their usual sharpness.

     “K-kenma!?” Akaashi chokes out, his voice way higher than he would have liked. He clears his throat and gives his son a tense smile, nervously running his hands through his hair and pulling on his shirt to fix it in place. “What is it?”

     “I smelled apple pie,” Kenma explains simply, his gaze traveling between the two very flustered adults.

     “It’ll be done in a moment, kitty-cat.”

     Kenma nods, and then turns around to leave. Just as he is about to step out of the kitchen, he turns his head looks back at them from over his shoulder.

     “You can kiss if you want to. Tetsu and I already saw you the other day.”

     Bokuto and Akaashi’s eyes widen to the size of plates, and they exchange surprised looks at the innocently uttered comment. They turn back to Kenma, who stares at them for another moment before walking away with another word. Bokuto’s jaw falls opens as he turns to give Akaashi a look of silent bewilderment, which Akaashi responds to with an equally astounded shake of his head and some wordless stammering.

     “So _that’s_ why Tetsu asked me if I wanted to marry you!”

     “Well,” Akaashi starts, staring at the doorway where his son was standing a few moments ago. “I guess now they know we’re boyfriends.”

     “Oh, so we _are_ boyfriends?” Bokuto teases, nudging Akaashi with his shoulder.

     Any witty response that Akaashi could have came up with is drowned by the sudden noise of the oven timer going off, and the subsequent sound of two hungry kids running towards the kitchen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm sooooo sorry for taking so long, college is definitely a though foe. Thank you so much for being patient with me, and thank you, as always, for all your sweet comments! I swear reading your comments makes my day, you are all so kind and amazing!!! ♥
> 
> Come talk to me at allen-walkers on Tumblr ♥


	7. Epilogue: 12 Years Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Arrives a year and a half later with Starbucks* Heeeeeey! Guess who's back from a very long, very unexpected hiatus?
> 
> I'm so, so sorry for disappearing so suddenly and leaving this fic unfinished. College suddenly got very overwhelming, and some aspects of my personal life took a sharp turn, and all of sudden I just didn't have time to keep writing. But now that I finally have more free time, I decided to come back and finish this fic, and another one I also left unfinished. 
> 
> Again, I am so incredibly sorry for taking so long to finish this. Even so, I hope you enjoy this final chapter. It's an epilogue of sorts, set twelve years after chapter 6. So, without further ado, I present to you, the last chapter of our beloved Papa Owls, and their Kittens!

          Despite the cold wind blowing non-stop outside, and the loud banging of tree branches hitting the window, Bokuto barely even moves, still trapped in the deepest of slumbers. On the bed next to him, with his backside pressed to the front of Bokuto’s body, and his hand resting on top of the arm Bokuto has draped across his waist, Akaashi snores softly, also deeply asleep. Over the years, Bokuto has learned to love the sound of Akaashi’s snores, at first because of the poetic irony of someone as perfect as his husband being able to make such a mundane sound, and then simply because he found it adorable. It was only fitting, since he found everything about Akaashi adorable, that he ended up falling in love with his snoring as well.

     Bokuto stirs a little, and Akaashi instinctively cuddles up closer to him. Their cats, Chat and Gato (named ten years ago by Tetsurou and Kenma in honor of their beloved cat plushies, worn out and battered by years of use, but still whole on a shelf in Kenma’s bedroom), wake up because of the slight movements of their owners. They stretch their bodies and yawn before jumping off the bed one after the other, and begin to meow loudly.

     Their calls for attention wake up Bokuto first. Refusing to open his eyes, he lets out an annoyed groan, and tightens his hold on Akaashi’s waist to bring him closer, sleepily nuzzling his hair. Akaashi’s snoring stops, replaced with a low humming noise as he slowly begins to wake up. The intensity of the cats’ meowing increases, effectively waking the two of them completely. Bokuto lets out a strange combination of a sigh and a groan, still determined to stay in bed no matter how much the cats whine.

     “I told you that letting them sleep on our bed was a bad idea,” he grumbles moodily.

     “You’re a decade too late with that complaint, Koutarou-san.”

     Akaashi arches his back and stretches his arms over his head. He relaxes his body when he hears the popping sound of his bones falling in place, and then turns around on the bed to be face to face with Bokuto. Bokuto waits until he’s settled to wrap his arms around him and hug him to his chest, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. A satisfied smile tugs at the corners of Akaashi’s lips as he cranes his neck upwards to place a tiny kiss on Bokuto’s chin. They are about to fall back asleep, curled up together and surrounded by each other’s warmth, when Chat and Gato decide to step it up, and start scratching on the bedroom door as they continue with their tortuous duet.

     _“God, papa, just feed the cats already!”_ Tetsurou yells from his bedroom. Bokuto groans again, and hoists himself up on his forearm to yell back at him, much to Akaashi’s discomfort.

     “Go do it yourself, you lazy ass!”

     “Koutarou-san, too loud…”

     Before Bokuto can apologize, their bedroom door is opened. Kenma peeks in from behind the doorway, still clad in his pajamas. The cats immediately stop meowing and start purring instead, rubbing themselves on Kenma’s legs as they leave the room.

     “Sorry, they were being too loud,” he explains.

     “Don’t apologize, buddy! We were going crazy in here,” Bokuto says with a bright grin. Akaashi sits up on the bed next to him, and smiles warmly at his son.

     “Thanks, Kenma.”

     Kenma nods his head and turns around to leave. He changes his mind at the last moment, and returns to his previous spot.

     “It’s kinda late. You should get up now or you’ll be late for work.”

     “Alright, leave the door open, then,” Akaashi says. “We’ll be in down in a minute to help with breakfast.”

     Kenma nods his head again, and then leaves. Bokuto and Akaashi don’t move from their spots on the bed, listening to the boy’s soft steps as he goes downstairs and into the kitchen. Then comes the sound of Tetsurou’s bedroom door being opened, followed by his considerably louder steps.

     “What did you do to deserve that boy?” Bokuto jokes as his son walks past the door. Tetsurou leans back to pop his head inside the bedroom with one of his trademark smirks.

     “I guess we both got lucky, huh?”

     “I guess we did.” Bokuto leans down to give Akaashi a tender kiss on the cheek, and Akaashi receives it with his eyes closed and an appreciative hum.

     “Ugh, you two are so _corny_!” Tetsurou whines, and Bokuto shoots him a mock glare.

     “You can say whatever you want, but I wasn’t the one who proposed with an origami rose,” Bokuto teases as he jumps out of the bed, grabbing a hair band from his nightstand to tie up his hair.

     “That was _ages_ ago.” Tetsurou waits for his father to join him at the door, and they both begin to make their way downstairs together. “I was _five_!”

      “And you were _so_ cute.” As they walk down the hall, Akaashi can see Bokuto teasingly pinching Tetsurou’s cheek, and chuckles at the annoyed expression the boy makes. Bokuto turns around to look at him once they reach the staircase, waiting for Tetsurou to go in front of him. “You coming, Keiji?”

     “In a minute.” Akaashi lies back down on the bed, snuggling up to Bokuto’s pillow. “The bed is still warm.”

     Bokuto gives him a loving stare and blows him a kiss. Akaashi blows him one of his own, and then laughs when Bokuto pretends to catch in the air, and press it against his cheek before he goes downstairs.

     Now alone, Akaashi stretches his arms in front of him once more, trying to gather enough will to finally get out of bed. The sounds of Bokuto and the boys making breakfast downstairs, accompanied by laughter and cheery voices float into the bedroom, and put a smile on Akaashi’s lips as he absently stares at his hands. As the morning sun shines gold onto the wedding band on his finger, Akaashi can’t help but to think that it’s definitely him who got lucky.

~•~

     “Could the two of you stop sucking face for _one_ minute? We’re still here.”

     Kenma looks up from his phone just in time to see Shouyou and Tobio break apart, both of them blushing furiously. They both look around the tiny café with wide eyes, making sure that no one is staring at them.

     “Sh-shut up, Tetsu, we’re not sucking face!” Shouyou exclaims. “It was just a little peck!”

     “Like hell it was!” Tetsurou says. He leans back on his chair, and casually drapes one arm over Kenma’s shoulders. Kenma mutely leans into his touch, returning his gaze to his phone screen. Shouyou drops his head on Tobio’s shoulder, giving Tetsurou an offended pout.

     “And why do you care, anyway?” Shouyou mumbles, absently playing with the straw of his orange juice.

     “I’m the oldest here, so I feel compelled to monitor your behavior,” Tetsurou explains with a smirk. Kenma snorts, and Shouyou and Tobio give him similar looks of disbelief, eyebrows quirked, and lips pursed.

     “How kind of you,” Tobio deadpans, unamused. Tetsurou presses a hand to his chest and gives them a beatific smile.

     “I’m always this kind.”

     Shouyou rolls his eyes, and moves his head from Tobio’s shoulder to stare at him. Tobio shoots him a questioning look, earning a bright smile in return.

     “You’re so pretty, Tobio,” Shouyou observes, resting his elbow on the table to hold his head in his hand, and stare lovingly at his boyfriend. Tobio proceeds to unceremoniously choke on his drink, his face immediately turning red from both embarrassment and lack of air.

     “Sh-shut up, dumbass, don’t say embarrassing things all of sudden!” he finally manages to choke out, but Shouyou only laughs, knowing full-well that there is not an ounce of anger on Tobio’s words.

     “Ugh, why is everyone around me so corny?” Tetsurou whines, throwing his head back. Shouyou sticks his tongue out at him, while Tobio still tries to recover from his sudden brush with death. “You’ve been spending all of your time together since you were in preschool, how do you still manage to be so disgustingly cute?”

     “Same goes for you two.” Shouyou points to Tetsurou’s arm draped across Kenma’s shoulders.

     “Yeah, well, we’re not the ones sucking face right now, shrimpy!”

     “Kenma!” Shouyou whines, reaching across the table to grab one of Kenma’s wrists. “Tetsu is being a bully!”

     “Tetsu, don’t be a bully,” Kenma chastises without tearing his eyes off his phone, entranced as he is with a game he just downloaded. Ignoring Kenma’s ineffective scolding, Tetsurou leans across the table to give Shouyou a mocking smile.

     “I see you’re still the same little kid who fell off a swing that day on the playground!”

     “Ugh, how do you still remember that?” Shouyou’s hands fly to his forehead, to the place where an old, tiny scar from that incident adorns his skin.

     “It was pretty unforgettable,” Tetsurou says, voice laced with laughter.

     “Tobio cried for like a week after that,” Kenma adds. “Because he thought you were going to die.”

     Tobio makes an undignified sound, and Shouyou bursts out laughing at the memory.

     “His parents had to call mine for like three days straight so he could check I was still alive!”

     “I can’t believe you still remember that!” Tobio exclaims with a scowl. “It was ages ago!”

     Tobio’s protests only seem to increase the intensity of Shouyou’s laughter, and he’s soon joined by Tetsurou, who slams his hand on the table and clutches his stomach. Their scandalous laughter manages to attract some looks from the other customers, but they are too caught up in the moment to notice. Tobio just crosses his arms over his chest and pouts, waiting for the two of them to _shut up,_ and Kenma gives him a sympathetic look from across the table.

     “Oh, man,” Tetsurou sighs once their laughter recedes, wiping a tear from the corner of his eye. “We were so cute back then.” His gaze falls on Kenma, and he stares at him for a while with a tiny smile on his lips. “Some of us still are.”

     “Yeah, too bad you had to grow up,” Kenma deadpans.

     Silence befalls their table for a total of two seconds, before Shouyou bursts out laughing again, this time even louder that before.

     “Kenma, you’re savage!” he manages to choke out, and even Tobio can’t hide his evident amusement as he stifles a snort and a laugh behind his hand.

     “Your words cut deep, Kenma,” Tetsurou says, clutching to his chest in an over-dramatic gesture.

     While his friends are still laughing across the table, Kenma finally looks up from his phone, and gives Tetsurou a tiny, yet sweet smile.

     “Sorry,” he mumbles, and the hurt expression of Tetsurou’s face is replaced by a wide grin as he leans forward to softly bump his forehead against Kenma’s.

     “I’ll forgive you just 'cause you’re cute, kitty-cat,” he says, and Kenma immediately scrunches up his nose.

     “Don’t call me that,” he complains, just before Shouyou interrupts their moment with a loud _“Who’s being corny now!?”_

~•~

     Once the afternoon sunlight filtering through the windows of the small café begins to tint everything it touches in a warm shade of orange, the boys decide to get back home.

     “See you tomorrow, guys!” Shouyou waves at them from over his shoulder. Standing just outside the café, Kenma and Tetsurou wave back at him, and watch as he runs to catch up with Tobio. Once he reaches him, Tobio wordlessly offers his hand to him, and Shouyou immediately takes it and starts talking at what looks like a million words per second. Kenma and Tetsurou watch them walk away for a few moments, before Tetsurou’s voice breaks the silence.

     “So,” he starts, turning his head to look at Kenma. “Your house or mine?”

     Kenma can’t stop himself from snorting at Tetsurou’s words. He hears the same joke nearly every day, but it still manages to be amusing. Tetsurou knows it, of course, and he is not one to waste a good opportunity to see Kenma’s smile.

     “Yours, it’s closer,” Kenma jokes back. Tetsurou smiles fondly at him, and reaches out to grab his hand inside of his. Kenma immediately intertwines their fingers together, like they’ve done countless times before. They begin to walk down the sidewalk at a slow, lazy pace, basking in the glow of a particularly nice afternoon. “I really like our double dates,” Kenma says after a while, and Tetsurou nods in agreement.

     “Yeah, even if we have to see those two corny-asses make out.”

     “You’re way too mean, Tetsu.”

     “Maybe, but you still love me.” Tetsurou gives Kenma one of his trademark smirks, and receives an eye-roll in return. He chuckles and squeezes Kenma’s hand, and then chuckles again when Kenma wordlessly squeezes back.

~•~

     “Keiji!” Bokuto calls out from the backyard, his voice slipping into the kitchen. Akaashi ignores him, focused on kneading the bread dough in front of him. “Keiji!” Bokuto calls out again, but Akaashi still doesn’t answer. A few seconds pass, and the next time Bokuto yells out, his voice is tinted with exasperation. “Akaashi!”

     Akaashi finally raises his gaze from the dough and looks over his shoulder to see Bokuto entering the kitchen from the backyard. His clothes are covered in dirt, and his hair is a mess, but most importantly, Akaashi mentally notes, his sleeves are rolled up.

     “I called your name like a thousand times!” Bokuto complains, wiping the sweat off his forehead with his arm. Akaashi watches him intently, a tiny smirk tugging at the corners of his lips at the wonderful sight in front of him. Once he’s done ogling Bokuto, he wipes his hands off on his apron, and turns around to fully face him.

     “Sorry, Koutarou-san, I’m still not used to you calling me by my first name.”

     “We’ve been calling each other by our first names for years! You were just ignoring me,” Bokuto whines with a tiny frown. “And drop the ‘-san’ already, we’re married!”

     With a tinkling chuckle, Akaashi makes his way over to his husband to place a small peck on his pouty lips. Just as he’s pulling away, Bokuto grabs him by the waist and pulls him closer to hold him against his chest. Akaashi instantly throws his arms around Bokuto’s neck and kisses him again, this time a little deeper.

     “You’re going to get my clothes dirty, Koutarou,” Akaashi whispers against Bokuto’s lips once they part, placing special emphasis on the last word. Bokuto chuckles nervously and blushes slightly, eliciting a laugh from Akaashi. “What are you getting embarrassed for? You were the one who asked me to drop the ‘-san’!”

     “My name sounds nice when you say it, that’s all!” Bokuto defends himself. Akaashi starts to laugh again, but Bokuto silences him with a kiss.

     “So, what were you calling me for?” Akaashi asks once they break apart.

     “I can’t find the hoe.” Akaashi quirks one eyebrow at him, and Bokuto frowns. “Shut up, I need it for real!”

     “I haven’t said anything!” Akaashi’s exclamation turns into laughter when Bokuto buries his nose in the crook of his neck. “No, that tickles!”

     “I know!” Bokuto punctuates his words with a small jab of his fingers at Akaashi’s ribs. He smiles tenderly at the wonderful sound of his husband’s laughter. “First you ask me to plant those tomatoes, and now you’re making fun of me!” He rubs his nose against the skin of Akaashi’s neck once again, and Akaashi lets out a small, shrill scream, clutching to Bokuto’s arms and trying to push him away.

     “Koutarou-san, stop it!”

     “Oh, so we’ve gone back to the ‘-san’, now?” Bokuto teases. He finally raises his head from Akaashi’s neck, to brush his lips against the shell of his ear. “ _Keiji?_ ”

     Bokuto doesn’t miss the small sigh that escapes Akaashi’s lips at his provocation, or the way the hairs on the back of his neck stand up on end. His grip on Bokuto’s arms tightens ever so slightly, and Bokuto responds by pulling him even closer to his chest. Not yet satisfied with Akaashi’s reaction, Bokuto presses a tiny kiss to Akaashi’s earlobe, and then grins to himself when he feels him squirm inside his arms.

     “Koutarou-san, stop-” Akaashi’s voice dissolves into a tiny whimper when Bokuto dips his head to place an open mouthed kiss right under his ear.

     “You really want me to stop?” Bokuto whispers against his skin, feeling overly proud of himself when he sees Akaashi’s skin bristling under his ministrations.

     Before Akaashi has the chance to answer, they hear the front door being opened, and two sets of footsteps entering the house.

     “We’re home!” Tetsurou’s voice floats into the kitchen.

     Akaashi and Bokuto groan in unison, throwing their heads back in frustration at their sons’ unfortunate entrance. At the sound of approaching footsteps, Bokuto rushes to press an urgent kiss on Akaashi’s lips, and then pulls back to give him a look that screams _“we’ll continue this later”_. They barely have time to try (and fail) to adapt a casual attitude before Kenma steps into the kitchen with a soft _“I’m home.”_  Despite their flushed cheeks and guilty demeanor, Kenma doesn’t seem to notice anything unusual as he makes his way across the kitchen to rummage around the cabinets.

     “Welcome home,” Bokuto and Akaashi greet him in unison. Bokuto throws a sneaky wink at Akaashi before stepping out into the backyard. Akaashi responds with a tiny smirk before turning towards the doorway just as Tetsurou walks past it. “Tetsu-kun!” he calls. “Could you help your father look for the hoe?”

     Tetsurou stops dead in his tracks and quirks an eyebrow at him, smirk already in place.

     “The what now?”

     Akaashi narrows his eyes at him, and places his hands on his hips to give him a stern look. Tetsurou laughs as he steps into the kitchen.

     “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he says as he crosses the doorway to the backyard. Akaashi softens his gaze and throws him a smile on his way out. He watches from the window as the boy steps into the shed where Bokuto is loudly searching for the garden hoe, and then goes back to kneading his bread. Behind him, Kenma retrieves a Tupperware full of Akaashi’s cookies from a cabinet, and begins to stuff his mouth.

     “How was your day, kitty-cat?”

     “T’was fine,” Kenma answers around a mouthful of cookies. “And stop calling me that.”

     Akaashi only laughs at the complaint, completely aware that they both know he is not going to stop using the pet name, and also pretty sure that, over the years, his son has grown to like it, or at least tolerate it.

     “What’s wrong, papa?” Tetsurou’s voice is loud enough to reach them from the shed. “I thought you were an expert at finding hoes!”

     His joke is followed by an offended gasp from Akaashi, and the sound of Bokuto dropping whatever he was holding to the ground.

     “You think you’re old enough not to get grounded, buddy, but you’re _so_ wrong,” comes Bokuto’s reply, his voice tinted with laughter despite his threatening words.

     Akaashi snorts and shakes his head affectionately, and then exchanges a tiny smirk with Kenma, who is still shoving cookies into his mouth.

     “Are they good?” Akaashi asks, and Kenma nods his head, looking very much like a chipmunk. “Good! I tried a new recipe that-” he begins, but Bokuto’s voice coming from the shed interrupts him.

     “Get out of here, Tetsu, I’ll find it myself!”

     A few seconds pass before Tetsurou steps into the kitchen. Akaashi and Kenma give him nearly-identical looks of inquiry, and the boy shrugs his shoulders with an expression of feigned innocence.

     “You made too many how puns, didn’t you?” Kenma deadpans.

     “He wasn’t ready,” is all Tetsurou says, and all he gets in response is an eye-roll from his boyfriend, and a light chuckle from Akaashi.

     Tetsurou approaches Kenma and presses a soft kiss on his forehead. He pulls back with a soft smile on his lips, and Kenma blinks owlishly at him before blushing to the roots of his hair.

     “T-tetsu!”

     “What? You looked cute, I wanted to kiss you!”

     Kenma glances nervously at Akaashi, who has watched their whole exchange with a look of endearment.

     “Oh, no, you two do your thing!” he hurries to say, returning his gaze to the dough. “I’ll just focus on kneading!”

     “See?” Tetsurou says. “Your dad doesn’t mind!”

     Kenma just sputters indignantly in response, trying with all his might to form a coherent sentence.

     “ _I_ mind!” he finally manages, becoming even more flustered than before.

     Before Tetsurou can reply, Bokuto’s voice comes from the shed once again, this time with evident glee.

     “Found it! Tetsu, get back here and help me!”

     Tetsurou throws his head back with a groan, clearly not excited at the prospect of spending the rest of his afternoon helping his father plant tomatoes, and then turns to walk out the kitchen and into the yard again. Kenma and Akaashi are left alone in the kitchen, with Kenma still looking like steam is going to burst out of his ears any moment, and Akaashi trying, and failing, to hide the grin that threatens to split his face in two at the adorable exchange he just witnessed.

     “Shut up, dad,” Kenma mumbles after a while, grabbing another cookie and taking a huge bite out of it.

     “I haven’t said anything!”

     Kenma merely grumbles in response, and then moodily exits the kitchen with the Tupperware still in his hands. Akaashi watches him go and lets out a small sigh before returning his attention to the bread, chuckling every once in a while to the ridiculous conversations Bokuto and Tetsurou are having back in the shed.

~•~

     Akaashi raises his gaze from the book he’s reading to glance at his phone. On its screen, big white numbers announce that it’s barely past eleven. Even though he is more of a morning person, Akaashi loves this time of the night. The house is always silent at this hour, all of the noise dying gradually as each member of the family goes to bed. Right now, as he’s lying on his bed with a book in his hands, his cats curled up at his feet, purring contentedly, and his husband’s head resting on his chest, he couldn’t feel more content.

     He returns his eyes to his book, and one of his hands finds his way to Bokuto’s hair. He begins to scrape his fingers across Bokuto’s scalp, gently. Bokuto lets out an appreciative hum, and snuggles closer to Akaashi, draping an arm across his waist to bring him closer to his chest.

     “Love it when you do that,” he mumbles, barely audibly, against the fabric of Akaashi’s t-shirt.

     “I know you do.”

     Akaashi moves to place a soft kiss on Bokuto’s head, earning a pleased sigh in return. He stretches his legs a little bit, and his foot bumps against Chat’s butt. The cat stretches his front paws and yawns, and then starts to purr loudly as he curls up again, ready to fall back asleep. Akaashi yaws as well, and Bokuto follows suit.

     “Keiji, close that book already,” he whines once his yawning recedes. “I wanna cuddle.”

     Akaashi opens his mouth to answer, and then closes it when a chirring noise floats into their bedroom. He recognizes it as the sound of Tetsurou’s bedroom door being opened. The noise is followed by the sound of quiet footsteps, and the tell-tale sound of another door being opened. This time, it’s Kenma’s bedroom door. Akaashi’s brows knit together, and for some reason he cannot place, his mind instantly flies to that moment earlier in the kitchen, when Kenma was so flustered about being kissed in front of him. He sharpens his ears to see if he can pick up any more sounds coming from the direction of the boys’ bedrooms, but he can’t hear anything else.

     “Koutarou-san,” he says after a while, brows still furrowed and mind racing. Bokuto only hums in response, already half-asleep, but Akaashi still continues. “Do you think it was a mistake to move in together?”

     Bokuto immediately tenses up against his chest, and raises his head to look at him with a small frown.

     “Um… I think you’re a couple years late with that question…”

     “Sorry, that came out wrong. I was just thinking…” Akaashi rushes to explain when he sees Bokuto’s worried and confused expression. “All of us living together is probably a little… difficult for and Kenma and Tetsu-kun.”

     “What do you mean?” Bokuto sits up on the bed, now fully awake. Akaashi closes his book and places it on his nightstand before turning to face his husband.

     “Well, I mean, they’re boyfriends,” he continues to explain, absently fiddling with the hem of the sheets as he tries to find the right words to express his thoughts. “And I know they haven’t been dating for too long, but still, they’ve always been in love with each other, and we always knew. We even talked about it before we decided to move in together, remember?” Bokuto nods his head, pursing his lips as he considers Akaashi’s words. “I mean, how old were the boys when we moved here?”

     “Tetsu was eleven and Kenma was ten.” Bokuto rubs the back of his neck as he seems to consider Akaashi’s words. “But it was a long time ago, what made you think about it just now?”

     The sound of Tetsurou’s laughter, followed by Kenma shushing him reaches their ears. Akaashi heaves a sigh and bites on his lower lip, and then visibly relaxes when Bokuto grabs his hands in his and rubs his thumbs over his knuckles in a soothing manner.

     “Kenma got really embarrassed and uncomfortable when Tetsu-kun kissed him in front of me today. I thought it was cute at the time, but now that I think about it, it’s begun to bother me.”

     “Isn’t that just cause he’s shy?”

     “He’s never been shy around Tetsu-kun,” Akaashi points out, and Bokuto nods his head in agreement. “The thing that bothers me is… they’re living like brothers, but they are not brothers. They’re boyfriends. And I know that we’ve set certain rules about sneaking into each other’s bedrooms…”

     “Which they are doing right now.”

     “Which they are doing right now, yes. But isn’t it natural? It was obvious this would happen.”

     Bokuto doesn’t say anything for a few moments, seemingly deep in thought. He rubs his jaw with his hand and pouts as he considers his husband’s words. Despite the serious conversation they are having, Akaashi can’t stop himself from thinking that he looks positively adorable, with his puckered lips, and his brows furrowed in concentration.

     “So what do you suggest we do?” Bokuto finally speaks up after a few moments.

     “I don’t know,” Akaashi admits after a while. He scoots closer to Bokuto and rests his head on his shoulder with a heavy sigh. “But I can’t stop thinking about it.”

     Bokuto immediately wraps his arms around him and hugs him to his chest. He presses a loving kiss to the side of his head, and rubs his hands up and down his back comfortingly. Akaashi’s body loses some of its tension, and Bokuto allows himself a satisfied smile.

     “Tell you what,” he begins, gently pushing on Akaashi’s shoulders to look him in the eye. “We talk to the boys tomorrow, ask them how they feel, what they think, and then we try and find a solution. The four of us together.” He moves his hand to rest on Akaashi’s cheek and rubs his thumb over his skin. Akaashi closes his eyes and nuzzles his hand with a soft exhale. “What do you think?”

     “I think that’s a great idea,” Akaashi mumbles against Bokuto’s hand, and then gives his thumb a little kiss. He looks up and flutters his eyelashes at him, eyes shining with uncontained adoration. Bokuto’s chest fills with warmth at the gesture, and he brings his free hand to his chest to press it over his heart, as if that’s going to stop it from beating like it’s trying to escape his ribcage.

     “God, we’ve been together for twelve years, and you still take my breath away like the first time I saw you,” he breathes out, and Akaashi’s chest swells at the sheer adoration that tints Bokuto’s words. He hides his face in Bokuto’s hands, grabbing at his wrist with both hands, and bursts out laughing, unable to hold in his glee.

     “I love you, Koutarou.”

     “I love you, too.” Bokuto grabs his face between his hands and leans in to give him a long, deep kiss. They break apart and press their foreheads together. “I love it when you say my name without the ‘-san’. You should say it like that more often.”

     “Then it won’t be special anymore,” Akaashi says with a teasing grin.

     “Man, you’re so stubborn!”

     Akaashi opens his mouth to retort, but whatever he was going to say is turned into a yelp when Bokuto tackles him into the mattress and straddles his hips. Akaashi tries to protest, fighting to keep his face devoid of any amusement, but he fails miserably when Bokuto starts to mercilessly tickle his sides. Chat and Gato jump off the bed, and then glare at them from the floor, clearly offended at being so rudely awakened.

     “Stop it!” he begs breathlessly, trying, to no avail, to pry Bokuto’s strong hands away from his body. “Koutarou!”

     “There you go!” Bokuto stops tickling Akaashi and leans back to give him a shit eating grin, that is effectively wiped off his face two seconds later when Akaashi smacks him in the head with a pillow.

     “Stop tickling me already!”

~•~

     Kenma looks up from his manga when he hears the door of his bedroom being opened. Tetsurou peeks in from behind the door, barely opened, silently waiting for permission to enter.

     “What are you doing?” Kenma asks with a questioning look. He closes his book and sits up on his bed, a small frown finding its way to his face. “You know we’re not supposed to be in each other’s bedrooms this late.”

     “I harbor no ill intention.” Tetsurou raises his opened hands to the sides of his face in a surrendering gesture, and Kenma scrunches up his nose in disgust.

     “Why are you talking like an old man?”

     “I love it when you’re sweet to me,” Tetsurou teases. “Can I come in or not?”

     Kenma wordlessly scoots back on the bed to make room for the other boy. Tetsurou walks into the bedroom, closing the door behind him, and sits on the bed in front of Kenma, bumping their knees together. He reaches out to grab Kenma’s hand, resting on his lap, and they instantly twine their fingers together. The inquiring look hasn’t left Kenma’s face, and his frown only deepens as the seconds pass, and Tetsurou still hasn’t said a word. Tetsurou’s eyes are fixed on their linked hands, an uncharacteristically blank expression on his face. Just as Kenma opens his mouth to say something, Tetsurou finally speaks up.

     “I have an idea.”

     He looks up to meet his gaze, and Kenma is surprised to see the evident nervousness in Tetsurou’s expression. It’s enough to make him feel a little nervous himself, but he still makes his best effort to give Tetsurou a reassuring nod.

     “I’m listening.”

~•~

     Holding a gigantic basket of dirty laundry in his arms, Bokuto waddles his way down the stairs, barely able to see his own feet from behind the gigantic pile of clothes in front of his face. Just as he is raising his foot to go down another step, Chat decides to run between his legs at full speed, eliciting a shrill scream of surprise from his owner. Bokuto struggles to maintain his balance while holding the laundry basket, and then heaves a heavy sigh of relief once both his feet are securely set on the floor. Just when he has decided to resume his way down the stairs, Gato jumps down from the second floor, and right into the basket. Bokuto screams once again, and unceremoniously drops the basket, which down rolls all the remaining steps, leaving behind a multi-colored trace of dirty clothes. Bokuto stares with disbelief at the mess in front of him, and then glares at the cats, who are by now brawling on the floor right in front of the staircase.

     “Ok, that’s it!” Bokuto exclaims. “Keiji, call the shelter!”

     Akaashi, who managed to watch the whole scene from the kitchen while he tried yet another cookie recipe, fights to suppress his laughter, and fails completely. His amusement only furthers Bokuto’s annoyance, who grumbles and curses under his breath while picking up the clothes and throwing them back into the basket.

     “You make the same threat at least once a week,” Akaashi teases as Bokuto walks past the kitchen with the basket. “But you still let them sleep on the bed every night.”

     “Hey, it was your idea to let them sleep on the bed!” Bokuto whines from the laundry room. “Now I don’t have the heart to kick them out of the bedroom!”

     Akaashi rolls his eyes at his husband’s words, knowing full well that, despite his constant bickering against them, Bokuto adores Chat and Gato like they were his own children. He doesn’t mention it, though, also knowing full well that Bokuto is just as aware of that fact as he is.

     “Suga-san called me earlier today,” he says once Bokuto comes back into the kitchen. “He wants to throw a small party at his house to celebrate that Tetsu-kun is about to graduate. What do you think?”

     Akaashi raises his gaze from the bowl where he’s diligently mixing sugar and butter, just in time to watch as Bokuto visibly deflates at the mention of his son’s imminent graduation. He rushes to drop his utensils and place a hand on Bokuto’s cheek with a look of concern.

     “I’m sorry, I forgot you didn’t want to talk about it.”

     “It’s not that.” Bokuto sighs, placing his hand on top of Akaashi’s. “It’s just that… I’m not ready for my boy to grow up, you know?”

     “I know. But he’ll still be your boy after he graduates, you know that.”

     “Yeah, but he’s set on getting a job and moving out, and all that jazz.” Bokuto pouts, his brows furrowing at his own words. “And I know that he’s eager to become an adult, I mean, I was the same when I was his age.” He looks up at Akaashi with his big, yellow eyes, and Akaashi’s chest swells at the sight of his pouty lips and puppy dog eyes. “But I’m gonna miss him.”

     Moved by his husband’s sudden vulnerability, Akaashi moves to engulf him in a hug, one of his hands finding its place amongst Bokuto’s multicolored locks, while the other rubs up and down on his back. Bokuto drops his head on Akaashi’s shoulder, and circles his waist with his arms, melting into the hug with a defeated sigh.

     “I guess no one is ever ready for their kids to grow up,” Akaashi offers, aware that there is not much he can say to cheer Bokuto up. It is something that they inevitably have to face, no matter how hard it is.

     They stay like that for a while, wrapped up in each other’s arms and simply letting the other’s warmth comfort them. There is not much the be said, so they are content with just holding each other and forgetting about everything else, if only for a few moments. They hear the sound of the front door being opened, and slowly break apart, giving each other sweet, reassuring smiles. Just as they are stepping away from the hug to greet their sons, Tetsurou walks into the kitchen with a confident stride, Kenma in tow.

     “We have to talk to you,” Tetsurou states as soon as they set foot into the kitchen, not even bothering with greetings. Before either Bokuto or Akaashi can say a word, he blurts out his next sentence in a rush. “Kenma and I want to move in together.”

~•~

     “They _what_!?”

     Suga nearly drops his glass, eyes widening in surprise. Next to him, Daichi raises his eyebrows and reels his head back, not as shocked as his husband, but still surprised nonetheless.

     “Chill, Suga, they’re gonna hear you!” Bokuto chastises, and Suga covers his mouth with his hand and turns his head to the window on his left to check if Bokuto is right.

     Outside at Suga and Daichi’s yard, Tetsurou and Kenma chat with Tobio, Shouyou, and some of their classmates. They don’t appear to have heard him, so Suga relaxes. The small party that he has planned for them has just begun, and the adults are still in the kitchen getting everything ready.

     “I’m sorry, it was surprising,” he apologizes.

     “It is!” Yamaguchi interjects from where he’s dropping a bunch of chips in a big bowl on the counter. Taking advantage of his husband’s momentary distraction, Tsukishima reaches out to steal some chips from the bowl, but miscalculates and ends up getting a tiny slap on his hand.

     “When did they tell you?” Daichi asks.

     “Yesterday. We were surprised as well,” says Akaashi.

     “And what did you tell them?” Suga inquires with interest.

     “That we’d think about it. Their logic is that since Tetsurou is going to move out after graduation to be near campus, Kenma should move out with him as well,” Bokuto explains. “I mean, we knew that them living together with us was a little awkward at times, but we didn’t expect them to be ready to take that step yet.”

     “Wasn’t it kinda obvious?” Tsukishima says, earning questioning looks from everyone else. “I mean, they’ve been dating for almost two years now, and it’s obviously a serious deal. I don’t find it surprising that they want a little more… privacy.” He shrugs at the end of his explanation, and Bokuto and Akaashi exchange pensive looks.

     “Yeah, well, I guess living with your dad, your dad’s husband _and_ your boyfriend can be complicated,” Yamaguchi aids Tsukishima’s point, earning thoughtful nods from the other parents.

     “We had some issues in the past with people assuming they were brothers,” Akaashi mentions, and Bokuto winces at the memory. “It was kinda hard for them when we first got together, and then when they started dating for real, for that same reason.”

     “I guess we’re gonna have to decide soon. There’s not much time left until Tetsu’s graduation.” Bokuto sighs throws his arm around Akaashi’s shoulder, and Akaashi looks up at him with a smile that’s half agreement, half melancholy.

     They fall silent after Bokuto’s words, staring out the window at their respective sons as they joke and laugh together. Daichi notices a small scowl on Suga’s face, and places his hand on his shoulder with a concerned expression.

     “What’s wrong?”

     “Nothing, it’s just that…”

     Outside, Shouyou casually rests his head on Tobio’s shoulder. Tobio stiffens at first, but then relaxes when Shouyou’s hand wraps around his. The exchange puts a smile on the adults’ lips, as they watch over them wistfully from inside the house.

     “It’s gonna be the same for us, huh?” Yamaguchi muses, resting his head on Tsukishima’s shoulder, mirroring his son’s earlier movements.

     “Sooner or later, yeah,” Suga agrees.

     “Rather sooner than later,” Tsukishima remarks, wrapping his arm around Yamaguchi’s waist.

     “Yeah, one day it’s their first day of preschool, and the next one they’re graduating high school.” Bokuto heaves a nostalgic sigh. “Time really flies when you’re raising a kid.”

     Silence befalls them once again. Then, the unmistakable sound of quiet sniffling reaches their ears.

     “Daichi, are you crying?” Suga asks in disbelief, and Daichi rushes to wipe his eyes with the back of his hand.

     “No, I’m not, shut up.”

     “Aw, Mr. Big Guy is a giant cry baby!” Bokuto teases, eliciting a round of giggling from his friends.

     “I don’t wanna hear that from you!” Daichi shoots back, blood rushing to his cheeks, and the intensity of the laughter increases. Suga reaches out to grab Daichi’s hands, and brings it to his lips to kiss his knuckles softly. Daichi gives him a silent smile of gratitude, and Bokuto is about to make a remark about how corny they are, when a familiar voice rings out from outside the house.

     “Is anyone home?”

     “The door is open!” Suga yells out. “We’re in the kitchen!”

     The front door is opened, and then closed. Moments later, Yachi and Kiyoko appear in the doorway, and Suga rushes to hug them both. Once he releases them, they make their rounds greeting the others, and when they are done, Yachi sets a big, delicious-looking pie on the counter, looking rather pleased with herself.

     “We brought some pie!” she announces with a bright smile. “Not apple pie, though, we can’t compete with the one Akaashi-san makes.”

     “It looks delicious, Yachi-san,” Akaashi reassures her with a sincere smile.

     Yachi blushes slightly at the compliment, coming from the master baker himself, and rubs the back of his head with a nervous laugh.

     “You didn’t bring Ken-chan with you?” Suga asks.

     “We left him home with his sitter,” Kiyoko answers.

     “God bless Shigeru-kun,” Yachi says with a sigh, placing her hand on her chest and closing her eyes.

     “He’s the only person Kentarou listens to besides ourselves.” Kiyoko places a hand on Yachi’s shoulder, and they exchange knowing smiles. “And we need a break sometimes.”

     “The harder years have passed, and you have more than enough experience with those,” Suga says reassuringly, but then purses his lips as another thought crosses his mind. “Then he’ll reach his teenage years and it’s gonna be an everyday battle all over again.”

     Yachi and Kiyoko wince at his words, but Bokuto clicks his tongue in disagreement.

     “Nah, kids are more of a handful when they’re little.” He turns to look at Kiyoko, a grin pulling at the corner of his lips. “Remember when Tetsu punched that kid?”

     Kiyoko laughs heartily at the memory, shaking her head fondly.

     “I could never forget. He called himself ‘Batman’ for weeks after that!”

     “Oh, man, remember when Shouyou used to call Tsukishima ‘tall dad’?” Daichi says with a shit-eating grin, and Tsukishima groans at his words.

     “He still does sometimes, the little shit.”

     They all burst out laughing in unison, and then begin to recall memory after memory, voices tinted with unrestrained amusement and fondness as they remember the good, the bad, and the ugly moments of their rides through parenthood. Outside, the boys crack their own jokes and remember their own anecdotes. Both in the kitchen and in the yard, the same feeling is shared: though some things have changed, some things will always remain the same.

~•~

     “Done!” Tetsurou announces once he finishes setting Don Gato and Monsieur Chat on a shelf next to each other. He takes a step back to admire his work, and then nods to himself, satisfied.

     “Is that it?” Akaashi asks from across the room, where he’s helping Kenma organize their books.

     “That was the last box,” says Kenma, as he pushes the last two books into their place on the bookshelf.

     “I’m done with the kitchen!” Bokuto announces in the same proud voice Tetsurou used not a minute ago, coming out from the kitchen with an empty box under his arm. He throws it on a corner with the rest of the boxes, and then inspects the place with an appreciative hum. “Looks really nice!”

     Akaashi gets up from where he’s sitting on the floor, and makes his way over to where Bokuto is. He lets his eyes wander across the room, taking in every little detail of Kenma and Tetsurou’s new apartment: the volleyball posters on the wall, the old, beloved plushies on the shelf, sandwiched between trophies and CD’s, the soft, beige carpeting that covers the floor, the light pink curtains that Akaashi picked out for them, thinking about how they would match the carpet, and hopefully remind the boys of the beige and pink striped walls of his bakery. And finally, the lone, single bed, pushed against the furthest wall, that Kenma and Tetsurou would share from that day on.

     Once he’s done taking everything in, Akaashi parts his lips to speak, only to find out that his words have died at the back of his throat. Whatever he was going to say is replaced by warm, unexpected tears making their way down his cheeks, leaving wet trails on his skin. He looks up at Bokuto, only to find out that he’s already crying as well, nose scrunched up and lips pursed as he tries, to no avail, to hold back his tears. Akaashi reaches out to take his hand in his, and Bokuto responds by squeezing his fingers, and bringing Akaashi’s hand to his lips, both to try and comfort him, and to help muffle his sniffling.

     Tetsurou and Kenma, who were busy with inspecting their new place and making sure that nothing was missing, turn around at the same time, about to speak up. The evident excitement on their faces is replaced by concern when they notice their fathers’ tears, and they immediately make their way over to them.

     “Aw, don’t cry, papa!” Tetsurou wraps his arms around his father’s shoulders, voice already beginning to crack. “If you cry, I’ll cry!”

     “I’m sorry, buddy, it’s just…” Bokuto doesn’t finish the sentence, opting instead for wrapping his arms around his son in a bone-crushing hug.

     “Dad,” Kenma mumbles with a small, worried frown, reaching out to wipe Akaashi’s tears with his sleeves. Akaashi smiles at the sweet gesture, and then moves to engulf Kenma in his arms. He places one hand on the back of his head, and another one between his shoulder blades, like he often did when Kenma was little. The boy is unmoving for a few seconds, but then responds by reaching behind Akaashi’s back to hold on to his shoulders, and burying his face in the crook of his neck.

     “I’m gonna miss you, kitty-cat.”

     “I’m gonna miss you too, dad,” Kenma mumbles against his shirt, and Akaashi doesn’t miss the fact that this time, his son didn’t protest to his usual nickname.

     Before they can say anything else, Bokuto and Tetsurou reach out and pull them both into a big, communal hug. Akaashi laughs, and Kenma groans in discomfort at first, but then surrenders to the display of affection he’s on the receiving end of.

     “We’re gonna miss you, brats,” Bokuto says, voice wavering with unshed tears.

     “We’re gonna visit you every weekend, pa, stop crying,” Tetsurou tries to reassure him, but it’s evident that he’s still crying as well.

     “And we’re having dinner together tonight,” Kenma adds, voice muffled by the fabric of Bokuto’s shirt, where his face is currently pressed against. Akaashi only sniffs, way too emotional at the moment to try and put his thoughts into words.

     “Uh, Keiji…” Tetsurou starts hesitantly after a while. “You know I love you, man, but you’re dripping snot all over my shirt.”

     “You’ve dripped snot on my clothes many times,” Akaashi responds, voice nasal and watery in a way that is almost funny coming from him. “Now it’s my turn.”

     Kenma snorts at his father’s words, and the sound is followed by loud, boisterous laughter as the four of them crack up at the unexpectedly amusing comment. As the final notes of their laughter die out, Akaashi is the first one to break away from the hug, wiping his eyes and sniffling quietly. He smiles at the three of them despite the tears, quickly regaining his composure.

     “So, who wants some cream puffs?”

     His suggestion is immediately met by a small chorus of _“me!”_. Bokuto and the boys wipe away their own tears, immediately lighting up at the mere mention of Akaashi’s beloved cream puffs. Kenma slips into the kitchen to make some tea, with Tetsurou in tow, leaving Bokuto and Akaashi alone in the main room. They stare at each other for a few seconds, and then sigh in unison before exchanging tired smiles.

     “You know, I’m gonna need some serious cuddles tonight,” Bokuto says, one of his trademark grins already finding its way into his lips.

     “When do you not need cuddles, Koutarou?” They share a small chuckle, before Akaashi steps closer to Bokuto to give him a tiny kiss. Once they part, Bokuto grazes his knuckles on Akaashi’s cheek, staring lovingly into his eyes, in that way that makes Akaashi feel weak at the knees, and that he is sure is never going to stop having that effect on him. He presses another kiss on his husband’s lips, and then steps away with a smirk. “You have snot on your shirt, by the way.”

     Bokuto looks down to find a round spot of snot on the sleeve of his t-shirt, and groans in disgusts. Akaashi laughs that tinkling laugh that Bokuto adores so much, and then turns around to walk into the kitchen where Kenma and Tetsurou are preparing the tea. Bokuto watches him go, taking a moment to bask in the sounds of his family talking and laughing together, before following his husband into the kitchen.

     And in the end, that’s what parenthood is, Bokuto thinks as he steps into the kitchen with his family: clothes stained with snot, sticky hands reaching for hugs, crayon drawings on the wall, knees and hands covered in band-aids, late-night cuddles after unwelcomed nightmares, constant scares and worries, playground accidents, late nights and early mornings, awkward questions that leave you blabbering in search of an answer, and a certain uncertainty that never really leaves you, not even when your kids are all grown up, and ready to leave the nest.

     But it is also so much more. It is also dumb discussions about cats and owls, paper airplanes and boats, playground dates, matching cat plushies from claw machines, and blue kitten onesies, stuffed inside the closet once they’re too small to be worn, but never thrown away. It is ice cream after a fight, shared cream puffs and strawberry rolls, dumb jokes and ingenious remarks, the joy of being called “dad” for the first time, the bittersweet pain of watching your kids become older, and wiser, and ready to face the world on their own. It is hand-holding, sticky kisses, hair ruffles, morning cuddles, cute (and strange) nicknames, sincere compliments, mischievous snickers, delightful giggles, and wet, warm hugs filled with snot.

     It is love, pure and unabashed love. And underneath all that love, lies a certain certainty that, no matter how many things change over the years, the bonds of family will remain unbroken, and the sureness that there will always be a home to return to.

     And at the end of the day, Bokuto and Akaashi think as they watch their sons prepare tea and set cream puffs on a plate, they wouldn’t trade that for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's all, folks. I really hope you enjoyed this final chapter, even with the long, long wait.
> 
> Thank you all for your support, and for all your wonderful, wonderful feedback. Every comment and kudos you left on this story inspired me, and filled me with happiness. I hope this story and its ending met your expectations, and made you as happy as I was while writing it.
> 
> A huge thank you to [miss-macabre-grey](http://miss-macabre-grey.tumblr.com/), for being an amazing friend, and a great, responsible, dedicated beta. I love you, butt ♥♥♥
> 
> Thank you all for reading! Come talk to me at [allen-walkers](http://allen-walkers.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr! ♥


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